Well-rounded Northwestern State eases past Stony Brook before loss to NIU in nightcap

BATON ROUGE – For the first time in the 2024 season, the Northwestern State baseball team did not have double-figure hits in a game.

With junior right-hander Chase Prestwich on the mound against Stony Brook on Friday morning, it did not matter.

Prestwich tossed six strong innings of one-run ball, and the Demons executed efficiently on offense to grab a 5-2 victory in the first meeting in program history with the Seawolves.

“We won a baseball game, and we’re darn proud of winning, but more than winning and more than two in a row, it was the way we did it,” first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “We were about the things we said we were going to be about. You win a ball game the way we won it last night (with 13 runs and 19 hits) and today we laid down four bunts. We had two sacrifice flies. We figured out the way to get the runs that were necessary. You can’t say enough about the job Chase Prestwich and Caleb Bunch did, and you can’t say enough about the game (pitching coach) Dan Hlad called.”

Prestwich (1-1) shook off a tough opening-night start and gave the Demons a jolt of energy in a quick-turnaround situation.

Northwestern State completed its 13-6 victory against Northern Illinois after 9 p.m. Thursday, and the Demons were back at Alex Box Stadium less than 12 hours later.

A junior right-hander from Frederick, Colorado, Prestwich turned in the first quality start by a Demon pitcher this season, scattering six hits across six innings of one-run ball. From the second through the fifth innings, Prestwich retired eight straight Seawolves.

“I was a lot less nervous,” said Prestwich, who threw 63 off his 88 pitches for strikes. “I was a lot more calm. We were able to keep the energy from last night’s win and carry that into today even with an early-morning game. We didn’t let last weekend dictate who we are. We know we’re a lot better than that. We flushed that down the drain and were able to come out and get a couple wins.”

With Prestwich stifling the Seawolves (1-4), the NSU offense had time to awaken.

Stony Brook starter Ty Saunders (0-1) retired seven of the first eight hitters he faced before Balin Valentine tripled to center field with one out in the third inning – his second triple in as many days.

A batter later, Reese Lipoma extended his RBI streak to five games with the first of NSU’s two sacrifice flies on the day.

“I saw a fastball away on the first pitch and took it,” said Valentine, who went 2-for-3 for his first career multi-hit game. “I knew he was going to come back with that slider. It didn’t have much break and was up in the zone, and I was able to put a good swing on it.”

Valentine started the Demons’ only multi-run inning of Friday’s game with a one-out bunt single in the fifth. After a Rocco Gump single, Bo Willis delivered a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to three.

Willis made sure the Demons’ seventh-inning execution paid off, singling home Lipoma, who drew a leadoff walk and went to second on Gump’s sacrifice bunt before scoring on Willis’ RBI single. Willis’ two-RBI game marked his fifth straight game with at least two RBIs to start the season.

From there, Bunch took over and worked three innings to record his first career save. Like Prestwich, Bunch filled up the strike zone, throwing 27 of 33 pitches for strikes.

“It’s no secret we challenged the pitching staff after last weekend,” Bertrand said. “Look at the work they put in. Look at the work Dan and (graduate assistant) Joe (Craighead) put in during the week and the way they responded the last two days. It’s from top to bottom. It starts with Dan all the way through the coaches. I can’t say how proud I am with the way we continue to go about our business.”

In the nightcap, a tough first inning put the Demons in an early deficit in a 14-4 loss to Northern Illinois.

After stranding a man on third in the first inning, Northwestern State (2-4) saw the Huskies tally six hits and seven runs in the first inning en route to a seven-inning win.

Northern Illinois (2-5) started the game with a first-pitch single off freshman right-hander Bryce Leonard (0-1) and continued from there.

Meanwhile, the Demons could not solve Northern Illinois right-hander Ty Brachbill (1-1) until the Huskies had a 13-0 lead.

Hayden Knotts’ two-out, two-run triple in the sixth put the Demons on the board before Willis extended his RBI streak to six games with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly.

The Demons wrap up their stay in Baton Rouge by facing Stony Brook at 6 p.m. Saturday. Freshman right-hander Dylan Marionneaux (0-0, 0.00) will start for Northwestern State against Stony Brook left-hander Nicholas Rizzo (0-1, 12.71).

Northwestern State 5, Stony Brook 2
SB 000 010 010 – 2 9 0
NSU 001 120 10x – 5 6 0
W – Chase Prestwich (1-1). L – Ty Saunders (0-1). S – Caleb Bunch (1). 2B – SB, Matt Miceli, Nicholas Solorzano. 3B — NSU, Colin Rains, Balin Valentine. HR – SB, Matthew Brown-Eiring (1). Highlights: SB, Miceli 2-4, 2B; Chris Carson 2-4, RBI. NSU, Valentine 2-3, 3B.
Records: Stony Brook 1-4; Northwestern State 2-3.

Northern Illinois 14, Northwestern State 4, 7 innings
NSU 000 002 2 – 4 6 2
NIU 714 011 x – 14 17 1
W – Ty Brachbill (1-1). L – Bryce Leonard (0-1). 2B – NIU, Colin Summerhill, Mason Kelley, Aaron Harper. 3B – NSU, Hayden Knotts. Highlights: NSU, Reese Lipoma 2-4. NIU, Charlie Parcell 2-4, 2 RBIs; Eric Erato 3-4; Summerhill 2-4, 2B, 3 RBIs; Kelley 3-5, 2B, 3 RBIs; Harper 3-5, 2B; Andre Demetral 2-3.
Records: Northwestern State 2-4; Northern Illinois 2-5.