NATCHITCOCHES – Northwestern State will attempt to keep its hold on sole possession of second place in the Southland Conference baseball standings this weekend when it opens a three-game league series at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 on Friday at Brown-Stroud Field followed by a 2 o’clock start on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Fans who can’t make the game can follow live stats online at nsudemons.com or real-time updates by following on Twitter at @NSUDemonsBSB.

The Demons (13-17, 9-6 SLC) are four games behind league leader Sam Houston State and one game up on a group of teams in third including Southeastern Louisiana, Texas-Arlington, Texas State and McNeese State. Corpus Christi (13-19, 6-9) is sitting in a tie with Stephen F. Austin in ninth place and has lost seven of its last nine games, including series losses in its last four conference outings.

NSU is coming off a nice come-from-behind win at Grambling on Tuesday after getting swept at Sam Houston State last weekend in a series that saw the Demons get outscored by only a 14-10 margin. The Demons held a lead in all three games before falling.

The Demons will stick with the regular weekend rotation of LHP Colin Bear (2-4, 4.67 ERA), RHP Jacob Roark (2-2, 3.74) and LHP Andrew Adams (1-3, 6.59) while the Islanders will throw RHP Trevor Foss (0-4, 7.58), LHP Adam Hoelscher (5-3, 3.38) and RHP Daniel Minor (5-1, 1.55). Minor is 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA in conference games and has one complete game shutout to go along with a combined shutout in five league starts.

Offensively, the Demons rank second in the league in hitting in SLC only games with a .277 batting average, trailing only Sam Houston State’s .336 league only mark. Demon centerfielder Drew Helenihi tops the team with a .370 conference batting average followed by leftfielder Will Watson’s .367 mark.

Overall, NSU is hitting .264 as a team with Watson leading the way with a .330 average followed by Helenihi at .327 and is on a 12-game hitting streak.