By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Chris Reich, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – Second-year Northwestern State baseball coach Chris Bertrand said before his team’s season-opening series with Central Arkansas he wanted his team to learn how to win different types of games.
Bertrand can check off a win via an offensive explosion after Saturday’s 16-6 run-rule victory against Central Arkansas at Brown-Stroud Field.
“We talked (Friday) night about the things we wanted to improve on – things from the game we needed to fix – and I told them I thought they did every single one of those things,” Bertrand said. “It wasn’t always pretty at every turn, but they did it. We talked about getting off to a better start and TB (starting pitcher Tyler Bryan) gets a shutdown inning early after facing some adversity. We got some early runs. We put up some crooked numbers on the board. They gave us some free base runners, but kudos to our guys for taking advantage.”
One night after the Demons (1-1) issued double-figure walks and hit batters, the visiting Bears (1-1) returned the favor Saturday – and Northwestern capitalized.
Down 5-3 after Central Arkansas erased an early deficit, the Demons regained the lead by capitalizing on a bout of wildness from UCA reliever Tate Collins (0-1) in the fifth inning.
Collins faced four batters and retired none. He hit two and walked two, including Balin Valentine with the bases loaded.
All four batters eventually scored as Cort Pryor and Reese Lipoma had RBI infield singles and Bryce Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
The five-run fifth was the first of three innings in which the Demons scored at least four runs Saturday. Not included in that total was a two-run first inning in which Valentine slapped a two-out, two-run single to right to start the scoring.
“It was a close, competitive game early,” said Lipoma, who went 4-for-4 and reached base in all five of his plate appearances. “They started to give us some free bases later on, and the big thing is we took advantage of it. We had situations (Friday) night where we should have scored more, and we weren’t able to get timely hits, which they did well. On the other side of it today, we got free bases and took advantage.”
No one took more advantage of his opportunities Saturday afternoon than Daniel Burroway.
Burroway entered the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh and delivered a two-run single to highlight a four-run rally that began with freshman Hudson Brignac’s two-out infield single.
An inning later, Burroway brought the game to an early end with a three-run home run to left that enacted the mercy rule.
“Coach Bert preaches staying ready when your name is called,” Burroway said. “That’s exactly what I did today. I stayed loose, moved around and went through my routine I have. When my name was called, it was go time.”
The Demons’ patient productive offense was bolstered by a bullpen that limited the Bears to one run in four innings while walking one and striking out seven.
Those three arms – former Airline star Carter White (1-0), Jacob LeBlanc and Bryce Leonard – are two freshmen and a sophomore.
“I’m proud of those guys who came out of the bullpen – those freshmen and sophomores,” Bertrand said. “They came out and competed. They competed with a lead, but at the same time, it was part of a lot of really good things.”
The series concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday with a matchup of right-handers. Junior transfer Trent Hillen is expected to make his Northwestern debut against UCA right-hander Coleman McRae (5-5, 6.09).
Northwestern State 16, Central Arkansas 6, 8 innings
UCA 000 411 00 – 6 10 1
NSU 210 050 44 – 16 10 1
W – Carter White (1-0). L – Tate Collins (0-1). 2B – UCA, Zeb Allen, Bryce Cermenelli. 3B – NSU, Reese Lipoma. HR – UCA, Sam Reynolds (1). NSU, Daniel Burroway (1). Highlights: UCA, Cermenelli 3-5, 2B; Luke Carner 2-4, RBI; Reynolds 2-3, HR, 2 RBIs. NSU, Lipoma 4-4, 3B, 2 RBIs; Burroway 2-2, HR, 5 RBIs.
Records: Central Arkansas 1-1, Northwestern State 1-1.
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