By Brad Welborn, Northwestern State Assistant Sports Information Director; featured photo by Brad Welborn
STARKVILLE, Miss. – If you put the ball in play, you never know what can happen.
Northwestern State did that very thing against a suspect Alabama State defense and it paid off in the largest come-from-behind victory in program history in the first game of the Bulldog Invitational presented by C Spire on Friday afternoon.
NSU erased a seven-run deficit to win in walk-off fashion 9-8 in extra innings against Alabama State. It could not however overcome a seven-run third inning against New Mexico (8-9-1) in the second game of the day, falling 11-3 in five innings.
Down 7-0 in the bottom of the fourth after the Hornets (1-15) scored in each of their first four trips to the plate, the Demons (2-15) received a spark off the bat of Riley Schwisow in the form of her first NSU home run, just the second hit of the day in four innings.
“Riley really got us going there,” head coach Jenny Fuller said. “I think it just gave us some confidence on the offensive side that we could put some runs on the board. We had that one big inning where we put it all together and got ourselves back in the game. Really proud of the team for their fight.”
The bomb to center began the climb back into the game that fully came to fruition in the next inning.
Two Hornet errors by the pitcher that would have ended the inning loaded the bases for the Demons. Cameron Curtis drove in a run on a clean single to center before back-to-back errors allowed three more runs to come across, with Curtis and Bailie Ragsdale both scoring on the second miscue, making it a 7-5 game.
Freshman Tori Clayton sent a ball right back up the middle on her trip to the plate scoring Schwisow from third to pull the Demons back within a run.
The Hornets had 2 errors through first four innings of the game and committed four in the 5-run fifth that the Demons took full advantage of to nearly erase the deficit in one fail swoop.
“We were popping pitches up early on and getting a little frustrated, so to adjust and hit it on the ground and make them make those errors was something we kept talking about,” Fuller said. “I felt like we did a good job of staying positive throughout the game and eventually things started going our way and we capitalized on their mistakes.”
ASU got one of the runs back in the top of the sixth, but the undeterred Demons continued to force the Hornet defense to try and rise to the occasion, and made them pay when they did not.
Sophia Livers reached on the seventh error of the game for ASU to start the sixth and was able to glide home easily on a two-out double down the left field line from Brynn Daniel three batters later that again pulled NSU within a run at 8-7.
In just her fifth appearance of the season in the pitching circle, freshman Grace Ann McDonald gave the Demons exactly what they needed over the final three innings, in her longest outing to date.
McDonald allowed just one hit over the final three innings of relief, limiting the Hornets to nothing more after the RBI double that put them back up by two in the sixth, working through traffic for a scoreless seventh and getting the Demons back to the plate in just six pitches in a perfect eighth.
“What she did really well was she was able to throw off their timing and got some quick outs for us so we could get back in and do our thing on offense,” Fuller said. “Really proud of her for coming in at the end and doing what she did.”
McDonald’s effort allowed Daniel’s double to set the table for the second late-game clutch hit from a Demon freshman that sent the game to extra innings. After a leadoff walk to Tori Clayton and a sacrifice bunt to put her at second, DJ Lynch shot a ball back up the middle to score the tying run.
NSU failed to bring the winning run in later in the inning, but following McDonald’s uber efficient eighth inning, the momentum the Demons gathered led to their second extra-inning walk off of the season.
The first three batters of the inning reached on a pair of hits and a walk, putting Curtis at third base for her longtime teammate Aly Delafield to try and win the game for the Demons. After taking a first-pitch strike Delafield took the next one off her elbow guard for the walk-off RBI on a hit by pitch.
Of the nine runs the Demons scored game, only three of them were earned, including the game winner.
The momentum the Demon had from the thrilling win was quickly snuffed out by New Mexico starting pitcher McKenna Guest in the second game of the day.
Guest struck out eight of the first nine batters she faced in the game before the Demons got to the Lobo pitcher the second time through the order. Sophia Livers singled behind second base to start the fourth inning, and after two quick outs, Daniel reached on an infield single to set up the biggest hit of game two for the Demons.
After launching her first NSU home run against Alabama State a few hours earlier, Schwisow lined a triple into the left center gap scoring both Livers and Daniel on the play. It was the second of four straight hits from the Demons in the inning, the final being a Savannah Coleman RBI single that scored Schwisow.
The three-run rally came a little too late however as it only cut into what was an eight-run deficit. New Mexico had pushed across seven runs on seven hits in the bottom of the third inning to take the commanding lead. They responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth and ended the game in the fifth on an RBI single to right.
NSU returns to action on Saturday morning when it faces Alabama State against at 10 a.m. before meeting No. 20 Mississippi State on SEC Network+ at 12:30 p.m.