Box Score NATCHITOCHES – Southeastern Louisiana closer Stefan Lopez collected his Southland Conference league leading 15^th save of the season but not before Northwestern State put the winning run at the plate as the Lions prevailed 4-2 Saturday afternoon in league baseball action.
 
Trailing 4-2 and with Lopez taking the mound to start the ninth, the Demons (16-25, 11-12 SLC) got a lead-off single by Colin Bear to left field.  Kevin Sanford entered to run for Bear and after a fly out by Todd Wallace and a strikeout by Nick Purdy, pinch hitter Matt Farmer hit an infield single down the third base line followed by a double steal by he and Sanford to place runners on second and third.
 
But pinch hitter Nick Doughty watched a called strike three pitch go down the pipe and the Lions (29-15, 14-9) escaped with the win.
 
“I'm really proud of our effort today,” said head coach J.P. Davis.  “We did a nice job of taking the lead when we fell behind and had an opportunity there in the ninth.  It's unfortunate that we had a couple of mistakes hurt us, but overall, I'm happy with the effort.”
 
NSU got a nice starting pitching performance from Jacob Roark who  allowed two runs on four hits with no walks and three strikeouts in six innings of work.  Jammie Bittle, who took the loss and dropped his record to 1-1, gave up one run on two hits in the seventh while Joe Scanio allowed a run and walked two batters in a third of an inning pitched.  J. P. Clifton closed out the game for the Demons with 1.2 scoreless inning of one-hit ball.
 
SLU's Dylan Hill improved to 7-2 after he garnered the win in a relief role.  Starter Jordan Hymel threw five innings and gave up two runs on two hits with a strikeout but would have to leave the game in the sixth inning after it appeared he twisted his ankle on a pitch.
 
The Lions took a 1-0 lead in the second when Cody Gougler was hit-by-a-pitch with one out, moved to second on a grounder and scored when Sam Roberson singled to make it 1-0.
 
NSU tied things up in the bottom of the inning after Wallace belted his second home run of the season over the left field wall, and then went up 2-1 in the third when Mitch Huckabay led off with a double down the left field line, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jordan Buckley, and scored on a squeeze play with Drew Helenihi laying down the bunt.
 
SLU knotted things up in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Gougler that scored Brock Hebert who led the inning off with a single through the right side.  And in the eighth, the Lions took advantage of two walks and a hit batsman to go up 4-2.  Things could've been worse for the Demons but with the bases loaded, SLU's Brett Hoffman attempted a one-out bunt that was fielded cleanly by Clifton who went to Purdy at home then to Wallace at first to finish off the double play and end the inning without any further damage.
 
Offensively, Wallace collected two of the Demons' five hits as the top four batters in the order combined to go 1-for-16 on the day.  Helenihi extended his consecutive game streak of reaching base to 24 straight contests after he reached base on a fielder's choice in the third inning.
 
SLU added eight hits with Hebert finishing at 3-for-4 with two runs scored and Roberson 2-for-3 with two RBI.  Ben Hernandez added a 2-for-5 contest with a run scored.
 
The Demons, who won Friday's opener 5-1, will go for the series win on Sunday at 1 when Bear gets the start on the mound.