LAKE CHARLES – Right-hander Elliot Ashbeck worked eight scoreless innings Friday night to lead Bradley to a 5-0 win over the McNeese State baseball team at Cowboy Diamond.
The Cowboys will be back in action against the Braves at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The game will be featured on Cajun Radio-1470 AM in Lake Charles and online at cajunradio.com. Tom Hoefer will provide the call for the game. Fans can keep up with in-game updates and other information by logging on to Twitter @McNeeseBaseball.
Fans will also be able to catch the game via live video and live stats by logging on to McNeeseSports.com/live. A 24-hour pass is available for $6.95 on the network while fans can also catch every game for a whole year for only $69.95.
Bradley improved its overall record to a 3-1 mark on the year while McNeese dropped its second straight contest and fell to 4-2 on the season.
Ashbeck (2-0) blanked the Cowboys through eight innings, allowing just one hit with one walk and three strikeouts.
The Braves completed the shutout with Matt Dennis, who tossed a scoreless ninth inning.
"We faced an ace pitcher who played well today and faced just three over the minimum," said head coach
Justin Hill. "You have to give credit to him but we also have to ask what we can take away from this as a team. For us, it is to learn how to beat a good arm that is having a great day on the mound. We are going to run into those types of guys on Friday night's and in a conference tournament."
McNeese starter Kaleb Fontenot (1-1) was charged with the loss after having worked 5.1 innings, allowing just two earned runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Fontenot now has a team-high 13 strikeouts on the season.
"I thought Kaleb didn't have his best stuff early but he settled in to get as far as he did today," said Hill. "He tossed a bunch of pitches out of the gate but he had the ability to go back in and shut the lineup down."
Bradley grabbed a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning following an RBI-single and an RBI-double.
Fontenot and Ashbeck remained locked in a 2-0 pitcher's duel until the top of the sixth when the Braves struck for bases loaded fielder's choice that upped Bradley's lead to a 3-0 advantage.
Junior
Ethan Stremmel entered the game to relieve Fontenot and worked 2.2 innings, allowing a run on two hits along with five strikeouts.
A sacrifice fly abled the Braves to scrape across another run in the seventh inning while another sac fly in the ninth inning added an insurance run for a 5-0 victory over the home team.
The only Cowboy to collect a hit in the contest was junior
Connor Crane who delivered a single that extended his hitting streak to six games.
"We want our team to be able to learn from the loss today," said Hill. That will be the biggest thing is for us to learn from it and then use it to our advantage. We just faced an ace and a team that played good defense as well as a good showing at the plate."
Bradley 5, McNeese 0 (Feb 20, 2015 at Lake Charles, La.)----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradley............. 020 001 101 - 5 7 1 (3-1)
McNeese............. 000 000 000 - 0 1 2 (4-2)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Bradley - Ashbeck, Elliot; Dennis, Matt(9) and Fairchild, Zach. McNeese -
Fontenot, Kaleb; Stremmel, Ethan(6); Brast, Clay(9); Briggs, Austin(9) and Toole, Cameron.
Win-Ashbeck, Elliot(2-0) Loss-Fontenot, Kaleb(1-1) T-2:26 A-515
