Trio of Northwestern State arms blank Lamar

BEAUMONT, Texas – Fittingly on May 4, three Northwestern State pitchers limited Lamar to four hits.

More importantly, the Demon trio of Tyler Bryan, Aidan Newton and Caleb Bunch handed the Southland Conference-leading Cardinals their first shutout of the season, lifting Northwestern State to a 2-0 win at Vincent-Beck Stadium on Saturday evening.

“There is not enough praise to go around, and it is difficult to describe the feelings we have toward the performances of those three guys and (pitching coach) Dan (Hlad) for that matter in the way he called it and navigated it in a really, really efficient manner,” first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “What something like that does in so many areas for our ballclub – it’s a catapult to a win and a win at a time we really needed it against such an amazing opponent. It’s the catapult to some momentum and energy. It’s a catapult to so much learning from the guys who got to observe how those three guys went about it in that way.”

Northwestern State (19-27, 10-10) needed every successful pitch from Bryan, who went five shutout innings in his second career start, Newton (2-3) and Bunch (third save) to offset another strong starting pitching performance from Lamar.

One day after Lamar right-hander Brooks Caple was perfect through six innings, Cardinals left-hander Jacob Ells (7-1) held the Demons hitless through 5 1-3 innings when Hayden Knotts doubled.

Although Ellis wiggled out of that jam, he could not escape the Demons’ near-perfect offensive execution in the seventh.

Daniel Burroway drove Ellis from the game with a leadoff single before reliever Kyle Moseley issued a four-pitch walk to Bo Wilis. The runners moved up a base on Rocco Gump’s sacrifice bunt before freshman Colin Rains singled through to left field to give the Demons their first lead of the weekend.

“They had great at-bats,” Rains said of the hitters in front of him. “The first pitch was a fastball down, and I saw the movement. The next pitch, he left it over the plate, and I was able to hit it hard.”

The Cardinals (35-10, 13-4) did not hit many balls hard off the Demon pitching staff, and when they did, the NSU defense backed up its staff.

Newton worked a perfect sixth inning thanks in part to a sprawling stop and throw from Knotts at shortstop to take a hit away from Zak Skinner. Newton followed with a scoreless seventh, working around a two-out single.

Newton worked two scoreless innings before Bunch came in after Brayden Evans drew a leadoff walk in the eighth. Bunch retired the final six batters he faced to secure the Demons’ first road win since April 13 at Nicholls.

The pair followed five scoreless innings of three-hit ball from Bryan, who has worked nine scoreless innings as a starter the past two weekends.

“Tyler’s been great the last two games as everyone can see,” Newton said. “It puts me at ease. He put doubt in their minds, and I get to come in from the pen and keep it going. Then Bunch comes out and does his thing, which is awesome.”

With the way the NSU trio silenced the Cardinals in handing Lamar its first shutout loss of the season, Rains’ RBI single was enough cushion, but the Demons added another run in the eighth courtesy of the reigning Southland Conference Hitter of the Week.

Balin Valentine homered for the second straight game, driving a full-count pitch from Moseley down the left-field line for his team-leading ninth home run of the season to give the Demons a little more breathing room.

“I told the guys after the game that I thought this was our type of win,” Bertrand said. “Not the sexiest win in the world because of the way the early part of the ballgame unfolded, but a Demon-type of win, because when things weren’t going our way, we stayed with it. We talk about never flinching. We stayed at the at-bats and competed in a way that we could eventually figure it out. We played defense and made plays to keep the game where it was until we figured it out. We know we have things we need to clean up, however, it’s our team’s type of win because it was gritty and we never say die.”

The series concludes at 12 p.m. Sunday with NSU right-hander Dawson Flowers (2-3, 5.94) squaring off with Lamar left-hander Hunter Hesseltine (5-1, 2.96), the reigning Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week.

Northwestern State 2, Lamar 0
NSU 000 000 110 – 2 4 1
Lamar 000 000 000 – 0 4 0
W – Aidan Newton (2-3). L – Jacob Ellis (7-1). S – Caleb Bunch (3). 2B – NSU, Hayden Knotts. HR – NSU, Balin Valentine (9).
Records: Northwestern State 19-27, 10-10; Lamar 35-10, 13-4.