By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
MALIBU, California – The Northwestern State baseball team’s longest road trip of the season ended in familiar fashion Sunday afternoon.
The Demons used a late rally, powered by Samuel Stephenson’s second home run of the game, to finish a three-game sweep of Pepperdine with a 15-12 victory at Eddy D. Field Stadium and cap a 7-1 road trip.
“We have a team full of punchers, and we have a team full of fighters,” second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “We won three baseball games, yes, but we won them in three different ways, and we won them by playing our brand of baseball.”
The Demons (31-18) collected their fifth straight victory and won for the ninth time in the past 10 games in large part because of a seventh-inning rally that began with two outs and nobody on base.
At that point, freshman second baseman Hudson Brignac drew a walk off right-hander Wyatt Nichol before the Waves (11-36) went to right-hander Austin Plisinski.
Senior center fielder Reese Lipoma welcomed Plisinski (0-3) with an RBI double before Samuel Stephenson put the Demons ahead to stay with his second home run of the game and third in the past two games – a two-run shot to left-center field.
A day after launching a two-run home run off Plisinski on an 0-2 pitch, Stephenson’s go-ahead blast Sunday came on a 3-2 offering.
“The first at-bat (of the game) didn’t go my way,” Stephenson said. “It was a three-pitch at-bat, which is the last thing any baseball player wants to do. It was nice to turn around and get in a good feeling. (The home run off Plisinski) was pretty much the same pitch. It was a slider that wasn’t as sharp as the first couple. I’m glad he hung it for me.”
Lipoma’s RBI double was his third of the day, tying the school single-game record. He finished 4-for-5 and scored two runs, which moved him into a tie for 10th place in school single-season history with 57 on the season.
A fifth-year senior, Lipoma was quick to credit Brignac with setting the winning rally in motion.
“He’s a spark plug, and he’s been that for us all year,” Lipoma said. “Seeing him come up big in that spot and pass it along was impressive. We had a couple of two-out rallies that were big for us on the day.”
The first of the two-out explosions came in a six-run third inning that was part of an extremely offensive-minded first half of Sunday’s game.
After Pepperdine scored four times in the first inning, the Demons answered with four in the second, including a two-run Bryce Johnson home run. Pepperdine had a two-run answer in its half of the second before Johnson’s sacrifice fly and an RBI groundout from Brooks Leonard in the third tied the game at six.
Following Leonard’s productive out, Mason Wray, Brignac and Lipoma singled to give Northwestern its first lead of the game before Stephenson capped the inning with a three-run home run off Collin Valentine.
The 10-6 lead did not last as the Waves posted back-to-back, three-run innings.
Junior right-hander Caden Fiveash (1-0) came in and settled the game for Northwestern, tossing 2 2-3 scoreless innings of relief before Jacob LeBlanc (1 1-3 innings) and Austin Anderson (first save) closed out the game with seven scoreless outs of relief.
“It’s our job and our players’ job to put the ball club in position to win,” Bertrand said. “From the time we got here on Friday until we just threw the last pitch, our guys competed to find ways to win. Winners win, and right now what they are doing is pretty special.”
The Demons return home to conclude the regular season with a three-game series against McNeese. First pitch of the series is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Brown-Stroud Field.
Northwestern State 15, Pepperdine 12
NSU 046 000 320 – 15 14 2
Pepperdine 423 300 000 – 12 13 3
W – Caden Fiveash (1-0). L – Austin Plisinski (0-3). S – Austin Anderson (1). 2B – NSU, Reese Lipoma 3, Balin Valentine. Pepperdine, Luke Upstill, Andrew Savage, Jacob Rebrook. HR – NSU, Samuel Stephenson 2 (8), Braden Benton (9), Bryce Johnson (3). Pepperdine, Luke Pemberton (1). Highlights: NSU, Lipoma 4-5, 3 2Bs, 3 RBIs; Stephenson 2-6, 2 HRs, 5 RBIs; Benton 2-4, HR, RBI; Johnson 2-4, HR, 3 RBIs; Mason Wray 2-3. Pepperdine, Justin Rubin 2-5, 3 RBIs; Upstill 2-5, 2B, RBI; Esteban Sepulvada 2-5, 2 RBIs; Pemberton 2-5, 2 RBIs; Cole Sheehan 2-5.
Records: Northwestern State 31-18; Pepperdine 11-36.
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