Northwestern State Demon Baseball 2020
2020 OUTLOOK A year of roster turnover left the 2020 Northwestern State baseball team in need of nametags. With 18 newcomers and three redshirt freshmen, there is no shortage of unfamiliar faces who will don the Purple and White this season. “There are a lot of new guys, a lot of new faces,” fourth-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. “Our talent level is good as far as the skills we have. I’m very pleased with our recruting, bringing guys in and developing them also. That’s a part that gets overlooked. When guys get here, our assistant coaches and our strength coaches do a good job developing those guys.” That development will be on full display at Brown-Stroud Field early and often in the 2020 season. The Demons open the season with an eight-game homestand, part of a home-heavy schedule that features 35 home games at NSU’s home park, which has undergone another round of upgrades. Included in the 35 home games are visits from Wichita State in the season-opening, three-game series and a final weekend round robin series with Houston and Mercer coming to Natchitoches. “It’s good to get them out at home and let our fans see our new stadium,” Barbier said. “It’s good to play in front of our fans. There are years you build excitement early and then you go on the road for two weeks and it dies. Hopefully we can build it and sustain it, get people out and make it a tough place for everyone to play.” While the Demons have a heavy presence of newcomers, there are returners with whom NSU fans are familiar, especially in the outfield. Senior Tyler Smith, a preseason second-team All-Southland Conference selection, returns after leading Northwestern State with 10 home runs and 36 RBIs as a junior. Included in those 10 home runs was a school single-game-record-tying three home runs in a 10-7 win at nationally ranked Arkansas in April. Smith could find himself in a number of Demon career top 10s following his final season. A Covington High School product, Smith stands 10th in school history in career triples (7) and needs three home runs to move into a tie for 10th place in that category. Smith also is a talented defender who has tallied 22 outfield assists in his first three seasons. “Tyler has grown from the day he stepped on campus,” Barbier said. “He’s matured so much. He’s learned how to give a professional at-bat. He’s always been talented. He knows he’ll be circled in our lineup, and they’re going to pitch around him and try to make him hit their pitch. He’s done a really good job of not allowing them to do that.” Smith and sophomore Jeffrey Elkins both started 49 of the Demons’ 55 games a season ago. As a redshirt freshman, Elkins was Northwestern State’s primary left fielder and ranked third on the team in batting average (.284) and RBIs (32). “Jeff hit in the middle of the lineup basically from the second weekend on,” Barbier said of Elkins, who had a pair of game-winning hits, including a tie-breaking double in the Demons’ 3-1 win against LSU in March. “He’s the ultimate worker. He’s out there early every day. He’s a guy, like Tyler and a lot of our guys, who have a combination of speed and power.” Sophomore infielder In addition to Smith and Elkins, senior Lenni Hilton Brown Kunert and junior Larson Fontenot return after also nsudemons.com // @NSUDemonsBsB
starting at least 19 games a season ago. “We have a litany of guys who have been here, like Larson Fontenot, and then there are guys people don’t know yet, like Kendall Foster, Jacob Farrell, Ryan Zimmerman and Gabe Colaianni, who will be very good players here,” Barbier said. “Some will have to work wihile they wait while others will have opportunities to play early and can captialize on them.” Kunert could see time at a variety of positions in his final season at Northwestern State. Following a slow start to 2019, Kunert recovered to hit .296 with a pair of home runs and 23 RBIs. “Lenni is our Swiss Army knife,” Barbier said. “He can run out to the outfield when we need him, slide into the DH role or play at second or third.” Kunert will be the link between the Northwestern State infield and outfield. Similar to the outfield situation, the Demons return several lettermen who have starting experience on the infield. The most productive of those is sophomore Hilton Brown, who hit .277 with three home runs and 22 RBIs as a freshman while shifting between second and third base. “Hilton, like Jeff, came in as a fresman and stuck after we lost a player, and he did great,” Barbier said. “He hit those freshman blues toward the end, which happens a lot with guys who haven’t played that long before. He’s come back in really great shape and done a really good job for us.” While Brown manned one corner infield spot for much of 2019, junior Peyton Davis has seen plenty of action in his first two seasons at first base. With several spots in the hands of players who have never appeared in a Northwestern State uniform, Davis offers stability at first base. “He had a really good freshman year for us,” Barbier said. “He’s swung the bat well in the spring and is someone you can rely on.” Davis will be joined at first base by senior Hayden Brown, a Murray State College transfer who had one of the Demons’ two four-ormore-hit games a season ago. Barbier said Brown could also see time on the mound and brings “power and stability” to first base. Up the middle, the Demons must replace shortstop Caleb Ricca, a 23rd-round draft pick of the Seattle Mariners in June’s Major League Baseball’s First-Year Player Draft, and Sam Taylor, who flip-flopped with Hilton Brown at second and third base. In their stead, the Demons have several options. At shortstop, Panola College transfer Cam Sibley emerged in preseason practices as the likely starter. He will be pushed by Payne Rodgers, who gained experience in the Demons program as a redshirt in 2019. “One hits lefty (Sibley) and one hits right-handed,” Barbier said. “Both are very talented. Payne is a solid defender. Cam is a talented player who an really run.” Similarly, junior Chaney Dodge and freshman Daunte Stuart offer Barbier and the Demons a couple of choices at second base. Dodge has seen playing time in each of his first two seasons and delivered the game-winning RBI off All-Southland Conference closer Reeves Martin of New Orleans.
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SLC Championships: 1991 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1997 1998 • 2001 • 2002 • 2005
