Conway, Ark.- The Central Arkansas Bears (2-2, 0-0) will play their home opener this weekend in game one of a four-game series with the Northwestern State University Demons (4-0, 0-0) at Bear Stadium in Conway, Ark. First pitch on Friday will be at 2:00 p.m., they will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at noon and then game four on Sunday starting at 1:00 p.m. The Bears and Demons opened last season with a series in Natchitoches, La. The Bears won game one, 6-2, but the Demons won the series 2-1. The Bears and Demons are familiar with each other, playing several times over the years, especially when both programs were in the Southland Conference. Over the last ten years the series record is 10-7 in favor of the Bears.

The Bears started the 2026 campaign last weekend at ULM with a four-game series. The Bears and Warhawks split the series 2-2. Several Bears had an impact offensively last weekend. Parker Gwyn led the Bears in several offensive categories with a .538 AVG, 1.394 OPS, .769 SLG% and .625 OB%. Nate Negre led the team in hits with 8 and stolen bases with 2. Jayden Sloan led the team in runs scored with 6 and walks with 4. Jack Runsick led the team with 6 RBI while Zeb Allen led the team in home runs with 2. The Bears also had several good pitching performances with Caide White leading the staff going 5.2 innings, just allowing 4 hits and striking out 5 batters in his first start of the season. Caden Meeler pitched 5 innings giving up 6 hits in his start, while Hunter Alexander pitched 2.1 innings giving up no runs, just 2 hits and striking out 4 batters coming in late in game 2.

The Demons are off to a 4-0 start playing 4 games at home to start the 2026 season. The Demons played a three-game series against UT Arlington and then a mid-week game with ULM. Over those four games, the Demons scored 34 runs, gave up 18 runs, batted .303 and their opponents batted .236. The Demons hit 6 home runs with 31 RBI and stole 4 bases. Colin Rains leads the team offensively with a batting average of .500, and an OPS of 1.238. Trent Hillen leads the pitching staff so far earning a win in his start, going 5 innings with 8 strikeouts, 1 walk and 1.8 ERA.

First pitch against the Demons is set for 4 p.m. at Bear Stadium on Friday. All games will have live stats available, both games on Saturday will be broadcast live on ESPN+.