Northwestern State holds off UIW, 5-4

NATCHITOCHES – Five runs through the first four innings of play, including a pair of solo homeruns, gave Northwestern State (6-5, 1-0) enough of a cushion to hold off a late rally to secure the conference-opening 5-4 win against UIW on Friday night.

The hottest bat in the Demon lineup set the tone in the bottom of the first inning. Hitting in the two spot, Daunte Stuart blasted his fourth homerun of the season taking the inside pitch far beyond the left field wall, staking NSU to a 1-0 lead two batters into the frame.

Marshall Skinner equaled the blast with a no-doubter to left in the bottom of the second extending the early lead. Stuart nearly added a third run in the bottom of the third after ripping a double down the line in left but a perfect relay cut down the potential run at the plate.

Stuart came in to score on a passed ball three pitches later to push the Demon lead to 3-0 through three innings.

“I’m just glad I can get on base for my team,” Stuart said after a 2-for-2 night where he reached base four times total. “Every time I go up there I’m just trying to find a way to get on base so my guys can drive me in because I have faith in them doing that.”

The Demons added two more in the fourth with Tyler Smith scoring on a wild pitch and Cameron Parikh driving in Skinner on an infield single to make it 5-0.

Starting pitcher Johnathan Harmon gave the Demons 6.1 innings of work, scattering seven hits with three strikeouts, working through some early jams to keep the Cardinals (3-3, 0-1) off the board.

“Johnny goes out and competes hard,” head coach Bobby Barbier said. “Most of the time he has good stuff and when he doesn’t, he fights through it. I thought he had pretty good stuff tonight. They’ve got a pretty good lineup; they took some good swings and he kept fighting and sticking it in there. He gutted it out for us to get to the seventh so we could finish the game using just two other pitchers.”

Harmon left in the top of the seventh, the only big inning for the Cardinals. A single and two-base error set up the first run of the inning with a two-run homerun three batter later pulling UIW to within one at 5-4. Reliever Cameron Taylor got out of the inning with no more damage done.

“Setting the tone is the big thing on Friday night,” Harmon said. “Going out there and staying consistent in the strike zone and giving the guys a chance to win. That’s all I really try to do.”

Like they had done in the previous three innings, the Demons threatened to score again getting runners to the corners with 1-out after a Jeffrey Elkins single. The big hit didn’t come for the Demons who left both runners in scoring position to end the inning.

“We put pressure on them every inning,” Barbier said. “Even in the innings we didn’t score we still had pressure on them we just couldn’t get that big hit to put the game away. That’s something we need to learn and grow from, but I was very happy with the pressure.”

Pressure of a different sort fell on the shoulders of freshman Alex Makarewich who took the mound in a one-run game in the bottom of the eighth. Four strikeouts and six straight retired batters later and the pressure was gone as Makarewich slammed the door for the first save of his career.

“Alex has been pretty special,” Barbier said. “He’s kind of emerging in that role where we didn’t have any roles coming in. He’s been special there and really smothering the other team with strikes. He had all three of his pitches working today.”

The series with UIW continues on Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.