Demons fall to Bears, drop into eliminaton bracket

SUGAR LAND, Texas – In its first-round Southland Conference Tournament loss, Northwestern State failed to dominate the average play, and it cost the Demons, dropping them into the elimination bracket.

In an elimination game against Central Arkansas on Friday, that same script played again, as the Bears took advantage of two unearned runs to score a 5-4 walk-off victory that ended Northwestern State's season at Constellation Field.

Trailing 4-3 entering the ninth, the Demons (31-23) put together a game-tying rally, as freshman Kwan Adkins flared a lead-off single to center and took second on a balk by Bears reliever Bo Stitch (5-5).

After a Joel Atkinson sacrifice bunt moved Adkins to third, Stitch got a ground out to a drawn-in infield for the second out. Chase Daughdrill worked his way back from a 1-2 count to draw a walk putting runners on the corners.

Caleb Dugas, who had delivered a walk-off, two-run single against Central Arkansas in Natchitoches on April 18, again came through when the Demons needed him, shooting a game-tying single to right field.

The Bears (30-23) had a ninth-inning rally of their own, as Brad Dillenberger led off with an infield single against Hunter Duvic (1-1) and took second on a throwing error. A sacrifice bunt moved Dillenberger to third before the Demons decided to intentionally walk Logan Preston.

Brandon Smith entered in relief of Duvic and struck out Corey Herndon for the second out of the inning. Smith's second pitch to Charles Deckard was in the dirt and skipped to the backstop, allowing Dillenberger to score with the winning run.

"Dominating the average play got to us," NSU coach Lane Burroughs said. "I'm proud of our guys for battling to our last strike and finding a way to get that run across."

Northwestern State jumped on UCA starter Riley Echols for a run in the first inning, as Cort Brinson slammed his ninth home run of the season with one out.

After the Bears tied the game on Travis Hull's first-inning sacrifice fly, the Demons took a 3-1 lead with a pair of unearned runs in the second inning, aided by Echols' throwing error on Garrett Logan's sacrifice bunt.

C.J. Webster, who led off with a single and took second on a Nick Heath walk, scored on the play, which advanced Heath to third. Two batters later, Joel Atkinson drove home Heath with a sacrifice fly before Echols shut down the Demons.

Northwestern State did not score again until Dugas' two-out single in the ninth, as Echols turned in 7 2-3 innings of three-run ball (one earned).

Meanwhile, the combination of Jeffrey Stovall (4 2-3 innings) and Chase Hymel (3 1-3 innings) helped scatter 13 hits across eight innings, keeping the Demons in the game.

The Demons crossed the 30-win plateau for the second straight season and saw Brinson finish the season with 77 hits after a 3-for-5 performance Friday.

Brinson, the Southland Conference Hitter of the Year, had hits in each of his first three at-bats, moving him into a three-way tie for the eighth-most hits in a Demons season. Webster and Dugas, both parts of a senior class that helped return the Demons to SLC Tournament action, finished with two-hit games.

"We can talk about it now, but with the injuries we had and what we were able to accomplish, it was still a special season," Burroughs said.