By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – There are no style points in baseball, simply the bottom line.
For the Northwestern State baseball team, Sunday’s 7-5 Southland Conference victory against Stephen F. Austin at Pilgrim’s Park checked several bullet points for the Demons.
“I am really proud of them today for the manner in which they found a way to win,” second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “That’s an important ball game to get because, when you sort through all of the circumstances, the fact remains that we won another series, and we won another series on the road in a tough environment to win in. We responded to what was (Saturday’s) inability to either mount a comeback or to make adjustments. The idea that we responded and took care of business and found a way to pick each other up and accomplish another goal is something to be proud of.”
The Demons (27-18, 17-10) captured their third conference road series win by doing to the Lumberjacks (12-30, 4-20) what SFA did to Northwestern in the middle game of the series – take advantage of defensive lapses.
Down 5-4 entering the eighth inning, Mason Wray and Hudson Brignac reached to start the inning on back-to-back errors by SFA shortstop Matthew Reinholtz. A walk to Reese Lipoma loaded the bases before Rocco Gump chopped a go-ahead two-run single over first baseman Mark Henning’s head.
Braden Benton added a sacrifice fly to cap the go-ahead, three-run inning against SFA closer Elian Balmaceda (0-5), who took a tough-luck loss despite not allowing an earned run.
Gump’s single was his second run-scoring hit of the game – both of which came against left-handed pitchers. Gump had tied the game in the fifth inning with an RBI double off SFA starter Jack James, who allowed one earned run in five innings before taking a no-decision.
“(Saturday) I faced the lefty (Cody Templeton) four at-bats, and he got the best of me,” said Gump, who finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs. “They were attacking me with fastballs later in the at-bats, so I went in with that plan. I just really focused on letting it get deep and hitting it the other way instead of trying to pull. The baseball gods had my back on (the last single).”
Gump’s single came after a half inning in which three Demon pitchers combined to keep the Lumberjacks from extending their lead after a leadoff double and a sacrifice bunt had put a runner on third with one out. The trio of Adam Alexis, Corbin Talley and former Haughton star Austin Anderson (3-0) each recorded one out in the inning with Talley striking out Dalton Mullins, who homered earlier in the game, before Anderson induced an inning-ending popout by Henning to keep it a one-run game.
Anderson closed out the win with two more scoreless innings with some help from his defense, which turned a pair of double plays in the final four innings.
Anderson induced the second of those, erasing a leadoff hit by pitch in the ninth by getting speedy center fielder Cermodrick Blake to ground into a 6-3 double play turned by shortstop Samuel Stephenson.
A day after committing three errors that led to six unearned runs in an 8-1 loss, the Demons played clean defense in Sunday’s finale. That combined with four shutout innings of relief from Alexis, Talley and Anderson allowed Northwestern to overcome 11 runners left on base and give the Demons their best 27-game mark in Southland play since 2016.
“Austin Anderson, Sam Stephenson with the play he made – and our middle infielders in general with the quality turns of it – what we’re talking about there is responsive and finding a way to do anything it takes to win,” Bertrand said. “Austin Anderson did a tremendous job of smothering them. In the past, maybe at times, we didn’t hold momentum the way we thought we should. When you take a lead and when you have a comeback, you expect whoever goes out there on the mound to smother the other team. I thought that’s exactly what he did with his performance today.”
The Demons return to action Tuesday when they face ULM in their final mid-week game of the season. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Lou St. Amant Field in Monroe.
Northwestern State 7, Stephen F. Austin 5
NSU 020 000 130 – 7 7 0
SFA 000 320 000 – 5 9 4
W – Austin Anderson (3-0). L – Elian Balmaceda (0-5). 2B – NSU, Reese Lipoma, Rocco Gump 2. SFA, Julian Swift, Ethan Adkisson, Matthew Reinholtz. HR – SFA, Dalton Mullins (1). Highlights: NSU, Gump 3-5, 2 2Bs, 3 RBIs. SFA, Kevin Duran 3-4, RBI.
Records: Northwestern State 27-18, 17-10; Stephen F. Austin 12-30, 4-20.
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