Elkins, Prestwich sweep Southland weekly honors

NATCHITOCHES – For the third straight week, the Southland Conference honored the Northwestern State baseball team.

This time, the league did it twice. Senior outfielder Jeffrey Elkins and sophomore right-hander Chase Prestwich were named the conference’s Hitter of the Week and Pitcher of the Week, respectively, in voting conducted by league sports information directors.

It is the first individual award for either player and marks the fourth time in the past three weeks a Demon player has been honored by the conference. Daunte Stuart was the conference’s Hitter of the Week on March 6 and Cal Carver was the SLC Pitcher of the Week one week ago.

Elkins, a Lafayette native, batted .588 in the Demons’ four games this week, recording a multi-hit game in all four contests. He delivered the first lead-off home run of his career in Friday’s win against Little Rock and moved into the top 10 in school career history in runs (120, T-9th), RBIs (113, T-10th) and total bases (281, 9th).

Elkins’ 26 home runs place him in a three-way tie for sixth in school history.

Prestwich continued his stellar start to his sophomore season, picking up a pair of wins this week.

A sophomore from Frederick, Colorado, Prestwich worked five innings of one-run ball Tuesday to defeat ULM before striking out six Little Rock hitters in two scoreless innings of relief to earn the win in relief in Saturday’s game.

Entering this week, Prestwich (4-0, 1.80) is tied for second nationally in wins, ranks 13th in strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.67), 41st in ERA and 94th in hits allowed per nine innings (6.12).

The Demons return to action Tuesday when they host LSU-Alexandria in the final game of an eight-game homestand. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.