By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
GRAMBLING – If the Northwestern State baseball team were to split its 12-9 victory against Grambling State
in half, the Demons would find learning experiences in both.
Northwestern broke quickly against the Tigers, scoring in the first four innings at Wilbert Ellis Field at R.W.E. Jones Park, then hung on to grab its third win in the first four games of a seven-game road trip.
“What we told the guys was we felt like this one takes a certain level of maturity, and it takes a certain level of emotional stability to be able to process what took place,” second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “There’s one side of us that has to be happy with a road wind, has to be happy with the first road midweek win of the year. We have to be happy with scoring 12 runs. We have to be happy with doing some things offensively without two of our better offensive players.”
The Demons (12-8) built on a strong offensive end to their weekend series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi by scoring five first-inning runs off Grambling starter Nick Robinson (0-3), who did not record an out.
Braden Benton’s two-out double highlighted an inning that also included the first three of 11 walks drawn by the Demon offense.
After Trey Bridges homered off Northwestern starter Kevin Robinson (4-0) in the bottom of the first, Rocco Gump answered with his third home run of the season in the second before a pair of freshmen pitchers maintained the Demons’ momentum.
Right-hander Wesley Marien and left-hander Jacob LeBlanc retired all six Tigers (7-12) they faced with a combined three strikeouts.
“The first three guys who took the mound did a really, really good job, and that’s the way you want to see it happen,” Bertrand said. “They were quick, they were efficient and they held the momentum on our side of the field, especially after we were able to get an early lead.”
Backed by those quick innings, the Demon lead expanded to 10-1 with twin two-run innings in the third and fourth before the Tigers launched their comeback.
A two-out, fourth-inning rally that saw Grambling push across two runs after a double-play erased a leadoff hit by pitch shifted the momentum to the home dugout, and Tigers rarely let it go in the final five-plus innings.
Grambling scored in its final six at-bats, but the Demons were able to avoid the crooked numbers have plagued them in previous games.
The Tigers never scored more than two runs in an inning while Northwestern, which was without starters Reese Lipoma and Daniel Burroway, manufactured pivotal runs in the sixth and ninth innings.
In the sixth, Bryce Johnson reached on a pop-fly double and scored on a two-base passed ball. In the ninth, JD DiPrima doubled for his first hit of the season, stole third and scored on Samuel Stephenson’s one-out sacrifice fly.
Those runs allowed the Demons to stem the tide and pick up their eighth win in their past nine games.
“We have to learn from what took place in (innings) four through nine so that we can be better for it, because we’re going to play another baseball game like that at some point this year,” Bertrand said. “There’s going to be another 12-9 baseball game out there for us this season. We just want it to unfold in a different manner where we exhibit a more sustainable brand of baseball that can be successful. What we did tonight was good enough for tonight, but it’s not sustainable.
“We want to play in a way that even if the scoreboard says 12-9, the baseball that was played was more sustainable habits and a little less self-infliction.”
Northwestern State 12, Grambling 9
NSU 512 201 001 – 12 8 0
GSU 100 221 111 – 9 6 0
W – Kevin Robinson (4-0). L – Nick Robinson (0-3). 2B – NSU, Braden Benton, Clay Jung, Bryce Johnson, JD DiPrima. HR – NSU, Rocco Gump (3). GSU, Trey Bridges (1), Aries Gardner (2). Highlights: NSU, Gump 2-5, HR, RBI. GSU, Gardner 3-5, HR, 2 RBIs.
Records: Northwestern State 12-8, Grambling 7-12.
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