CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – A howling wind and two top-flight pitchers going head-to-head left little opportunity for offense making every scoring chance, and miscue, that much more magnified.
 
Northwestern State starter Maggie Darr and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi ace Primrose Aholelei dueled through windy conditions before three unearned runs crossed the plate in the fourth inning leading to a 3-0 NSU loss in Sunday's series finale.
 
Both pitchers eased their way the first time through the lineup. Aholelei faced the minimum through three innings, with an Ashlyn Walker base hit in the second serving as the game's only hit over the first three innings.
 
Darr was even more impressive needing just 30 pitches to make it one time through the Islander lineup, surrendering just one baserunner on an error in the bottom of the second. While she did not record a strikeout during that first trip through, the amount of soft contact she induced made for an easy time for the defense.
 
The Demons' first scoring threat came in the top of the fourth after a one-out single and subsequent steal of second from Tristin Court. A line drive out to left and a swinging strikeout left her standing in scoring position.
 
The Islanders' first hit of the game came on a dribbler up the middle to start the bottom of the inning. After a fly out to left, Ashlyn Walker delivered a perfect throw to second to get the base runner attempting to steal adding to her conference lead in the category, her 11^th of the season.
 
With two outs in the inning, the Islanders manufactured their only scoring threat of the game with a bloop single to right, a walk and a bunt single right in front of home plate to load the bases. 
 
Another weak ground ball to short nearly got the Demons out of the jam but an errant thrown kept the inning alive and allowed the first run of the game to score. Corpus added two more on a bloop single to left to take the 3-0 lead three pitches later.
 
Two innings late the Demons had their own chance to score with the bases loaded after a walk from Taylor Williams and pair of singles from Tristin Court and Laney Roos. A pop up on the infield prevented a productive out and a sinking line drive to left was picked off the top of the grass for the final out stranding the bases loaded.
 
Kennedy Reynolds worked a leadoff walk in the seventh but the Demons were unable to add anything else in the inning.
 
Court had two of NSU's four hits in the game and is now tied for second most hits overall in the conference with 37.