Privateers Take Final Road Trip to Northwestern State

UNO Notes | Northwestern St. Notes

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The New Orleans Privateers baseball team (11-32, 2-22 Southland) enters their final road series of the season when they take on the Northwestern State Demons (27-21, 15-9) in a three-game series starting Friday at Brown-Stroud Field.

The Privateers competed against McNeese with all three contests being decided by two runs, but were on the short end of all three games. New Orleans has played 20 games decided by one or two runs this year, and is 5-15 in those contests. The Privateers are also 1-4 in extra-inning games after dropping Saturday's contest in 14 innings.

Andre Damiens had a huge individual weekend, and continued his momentum at the plate. After going 3-for-8 against Nicholls two weeks ago, Damiens followed up with five hits and five RBIs against McNeese. Damiens did not have an RBI in his first 33 at-bats of the season. Over the last two weeks in 19 at-bats, Damiens has driven in eight runs.

Jonathan Santana caught all three games behind the plate, and had a strong weekend at the dish. It started last Friday when Santana clubbed his first home run of the season. Over the final two games of the series, Santana racked up six hits and boosted his average by 43 points after a 7-for-15 weekend at the plate.

The Privateers and Demons have only met six times in history with the all-time series split at 3-3. The last time the two teams hooked up was on Feb. 25, 2011, a contest Northwestern State took 10-1. That meeting was the first between the two sides since 1998. The first meetings between the now-Southland foes took place over a three-game series in 1975.

Northwestern State enters the weekend in fifth place in the Southland standings and two games out of first. Last weekend, the Demons recovered from a Friday night loss to Incarnate Word to take the series by winning the final two games. Northwestern State has won seven of eight conference series, but only has one sweep (Central Arkansas).

The Demons pitching staff has recorded 300 strikeouts, fifth-most in the conference. The staff is led by Adam Oller who has pitched back-to-back complete games entering the weekend. Offensively, Northwestern State hits .266 as a team and has 58 stolen bases. Chase Daughdrill leads the way at the plate with 37 RBIs, and is hitting at a .307 clip entering the weekend.

Friday's game will start at 6:30 p.m.
 
PROBABLE PITCHING MATCH-UPS
FRIDAY: UNO- Alex Smith RHP (1-8, 4.60) vs. NW ST- Adam Oller RHP (5-1, 2.05)
SATURDAY: UNO- Nick Halliday RHP (2-6, 4.88) vs. NW ST-Josh Oller RHP (3-1, 3.13)
SUNDAY: UNO- Daniel Martinez RHP (0-1, 7.31) vs. NW ST-TBA