Lumberjacks pull away late to top Demons in series opener

NACOGDOCHES, Texas – An out-of-character performance at the plate for the Northwestern State baseball team made things tough on the Demons in Friday’s Southland Conference series opener at Stephen F. Austin.

Northwestern State could never unearth a big hit against a trio of Lumberjack right-handers while Stephen F. Austin came up with a couple of late rallies to post an 8-3 victory at Jaycees Field.

“We didn’t make their pitchers do something different” fifth-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. “They just kept throwing fastballs. We did a decent job in the strike zone. We took our walks, but we have to make them show us they can do something else.”

Trailing 3-0 in the fourth inning, the Demons (25-22, 19-14) took advantage of a bout of wildness from starter Joseph Sgambelluri to tie the game.

Cam Sibley’s RBI double put the Demons on the board and Sibley later scored on a wild pitch. Peyton Davis followed Sibley by scoring on a second straight Sgambelluri wild pitch to knot the game at 3.

The rally fell a half step short of producing the go-ahead run as Austin Kirkpatrick was called out on a bang-bang play at first base on a slow grounder for the final out of the inning.

An inning later, the Demons put a pair of runners aboard with two outs on a Tyler Smith double and a Marshall Skinner hit by pitch before Sgambelluri escaped.

While Sgambelluri danced around traffic for most of his five innings, Demon left-hander Cal Carver (6-5) did the same for six-plus innings.

Carver settled in after a tough second inning where the Lumberjacks (17-27, 14-18) scored three times to keep NSU in the game before a tough break in the sixth inning.

With two outs and a runner on first base, Carver induced a fly ball to right field that Smith never saw because of the lights. Garrett Goetz came away with an RBI triple that put SFA ahead 4-3 before the Lumberjacks tacked on two runs each in the seventh and eighth innings to snap NSU’s three-game win streak.

“We let things snowball, which our team really hasn’t done this year,” Barbier said. “We haven’t had a game where we’ve made multiple mistakes in the last couple of innings. We have to do better (Saturday).

“You’ve got to be the guy who wants the ball in those moments. The guys who made those mistakes do normally want the ball. They had a tough game. We’ll go take a nap and be ready to play (Saturday).”

The series continues with a 1 p.m. doubleheader Saturday. Right-handers Donovan Ohnoutka (2-1, 2.31) and Levi David (2-5, 3.91) are scheduled to pitch for the Demons against right-hander Joe Todd (3-2, 4.70) and left-hander Angelo Gennari (3-4, 5.63).

Stephen F. Austin 8, Northwestern State 3
NSU 000 300 000 – 3 4 3
SFA 030 001 22x – 8 8 1
W – Benny Emmons III (2-0). L – Cal Carver (6-5). S – Lance Koch (1). 2B – NSU, Tyler Smith, Cam Sibley. SFA, Garrett Goetz, Jacob Evangelista. 3B – SFA, Goetz. Highlights: SFA, Cameron Crawford 2-3; Goetz 2-3, 2B, 3B, 2 RBIs; Evangelista 2-4, 2B, RBI.
Records: Northwestern State 25-22, 19-14; Stephen F. Austin 17-27, 14-18.