NORTHWESTERN STATE BASEBALL:

All-Americans. Conference championships. NCAA Regional appearances.

All of the above have been part of the tradition that is Northwestern State baseball, a program that has made its share of headlines and memories in the last eight decades.

NSU’s baseball tradition dates to 1912, when the first incarnation of the Louisiana Normal nine won 7 of its 11 games. With the exception of a 18-year gap from 19301948, the diamond Demons have written a legacy of success for the better part of a century.

Individual accomplishments have blended into team success, creating a program that has enjoyed a run as one of the best in the Southland Conference in the last three decades.

Numerous All-Americans have donned the Purple and White, beginning with Danny Turner in 1967 when the Demons competed at the NAIA level. Darryl Woods bridged the gap between the NCAA and NAIA eras, earning All-American honors after belting a school-record 19 home runs.

Outfielder Terry Joseph was a two-time Academic All-American (1993, 1995) and ranks 9th in career batting average. Pitcher Reggie Gatewood was named a second-team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association in 1994 after posting an 11-3 record and a 2.14 ERA. Shortstop Ryan Anholt earned third-team All-American honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association in 1998 when he batted .417 with 15 home runs and 71 RBIs in his junior season.

In recent years, pitcher Adam Oller (2016 ABCA, Collegiate Baseball), first baseman/catcher David Fry (2018 Collegiate Baseball) and pitcher Logan Hofmann (Collegiate Baseball) have added to the Demons’ All-American legacy. Four Demons pitchers have earned Freshman All-American honors – Kyle Broughton and Dereck Cloeren in 2005, Oller in 2014 and Johnathan Harmon in 2020.

One of the most decorated runs in NSU baseball history began with its entrance into the Southland Conference, a league the Demons have called home for the past 32 seasons.

In that time, the Demons have accumulated 53 first-team All-Southland Conference selections, eight Coach of the Year awards, five Pitcher of the Year honors, five Player of the Year nods, two Hitter of the Year awardees, nine Newcomer or Freshman of the Year winners and one Relief Pitcher of the Year.

As a team, the Demons have captured 10 conference championships. Included in that grouping is a run of three straight SLC titles (1993-95) that has been accomplished by just two other Southland schoold.

In 1991, coach Jim Wells’ Demons earned the first NCAA Regional berth in school history and were placed in the NCAA South II Regional in Baton Rouge. The Demons fell to eventual national champion LSU, 11-2, and were edged by UL Lafayette, 11-7.

Three years later, Wells’ Demons earned another at-large bid and were placed in the Midwest I Regional in Stillwater, Okla. After dropping the opener to perennial national power Cal State Fullerton, 11-3, NSU earned its first NCAA Regional victory, as Gatewood overpowered Illinois State, 8-2. NSU fell to Memphis, 14-9, ending its season with a school-record 45 victories.

Wells’ success led him to become the head coach at Alabama, ushering in a flood of NSU coaches who took control of Southeastern Conference programs. Currently, former NSU coaches are head coaches at Arkansas (Dave Van Horn), Mississippi State (John Cohen), Ole Miss (Mike Bianco) and Texas A&M (Rob Childress).

The Demons’ decade of dominance continued in 1996 with two wins at eventual national champion LSU. Two years later, NSU notched its sixth Southland title and fourth 40-win season of the 1990s.

NSU closed the decade with a 38-21 campaign in 1999. Included in that season were wins against LSU and UCLA. The Demons closed the decade with a .658 winning percentage, which ranked 23rd in the nation.

The 2000s brought continued success with a seventh Southland title in 2001. That season, NSU defeated LSU, 10-8, in front of a record crowd of 4,214 screaming Demons fans at Brown-Stroud Field. NSU repeated as Southland champions in 2002, winning 43 games in Gaspard’s first season. The Demons cracked the national top 25 for the first time in school history, reaching No. 23 in the Collegiate Baseball poll.

NSU’s 2005 season was simply overpowering, as the Demons racked up 22 Southland wins and won the conference by five games, the largest margin in Southland history. NSU earned the third NCAA Regional trip in school history, traveling to Baton Rouge where it fell to nationally ranked Rice, 7-3, in its opening game before recovering to beat Marist, 4-3. NSU fell to state rival LSU, 12-4, in its next regional game.

In 2010, NSU tied its school record for conference wins with 22 and added victories against nationally ranked Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M. Four Demons earned first-team All-Southland Conference honors and the conference named Chad Sheppard its Relief Pitcher of the Year.

The next three seasons were uncharacteristically trying for the Demons, who nevertheless had three players drafted in 2012, including second-round pick Mason Melotakis (Minnesota).

The hiring of Lane Burroughs, a Mississippi State assistant under Cohen, signaled a return to form for the Demons program. After going 16-40 in his first season, Burroughs engineered a remarkable turnaround, winning 17 more games in his second season. NSU also authored the largest single-season turnaround in Southland Conference history, increasing its conference win total from 5 to 19.

The follow-up season included another improvement as NSU bumped its winning