LAKE CHARLES – Junior hurler
Bryce Kingsley turned in another solid performance on the mound, churning out seven solid innings of one-run baseball, but the McNeese State baseball team was unable to get anything going and dropped a 1-0 decision to Bradley on Saturday at Cowboy Diamond.
Due to the threat of inclement weather on Sunday, the weekend series finale has been pushed up with first pitch slated for noon. 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.
Kingsley (1-1) threw the longest outing of any McNeese pitcher so far this season as he registered another quality start after having gave up just four hits and two walks along with an unearned run. He fell three strikeouts short of his career high with eight punch-outs on the day.
"Bryce did well today as he pitched around some errors and multiple base runners," said Hill. "Bradley should have scored more runs than they did due to having a runner at second with nobody out multiple times but Bryce prevented them from doing so and did a great job on the mound."
The Cowboys only managed five hits in the game as Bradley's starter, Steve Adkins, tossed 6.0 innings, giving only four hits and two walks along with four strikeouts. A pair of Braves relievers limited McNeese to just one hit and a walk in the final three innings.
The last time that the Pokes were shut out in consecutive games occurred nearly 23 years ago when Southwest Texas accomplished the feat in a doubleheader against McNeese on April 18, 1992.
"Credit to Bradley for sticking the ball in there and for pitching so well," said head coach
Justin Hill. "We were able to get some deeper counts today but were not able to put the barrel on the ball when we got into that situation."
The Cowboys got runners on base in seven of the nine innings during the second game of the weekend bout but were unable to capitalize on a big play to drive in their first run in nearly 19 innings of baseball.
Four different Pokes recorded hits in the game including junior
Lewis Guilbeau who collected his second multiple hit game on the season with a 2-for-2 performance at the plate. Seniors
James Cantu and
Connor Lloyd as well as junior
Connor Crane each got a hit in the game.
"I think we were really close to getting that one hit that we needed to produce some runs in last night's game as well as today's contest," said Hill. "We made them (Bradley) face a little more adversity today so you could see that we were one pitch or one hit away. We took a few more risks today and some of them paid off while some didn't."
One of the risks taken was well worth it as senior outfielder
Andrew Guillotte collected his 60
th career stolen base, allowing him to pass Lee Orr for fifth place on the all-time stolen bases list. Guillotte now needs two more to pass Jason Alleman for fourth place.
Bradley scored the only run of the game in the second inning as first baseman Paul Solka's leadoff single turned into an advance on a sac bunt followed by a McNeese error that helped him reach third. On the next play a passed ball abled Solka to score at home and give the Braves a one run lead that would never be relinquished.
Senior reliever
Cory LaPeze entered the game in the eighth inning and tossed a scoreless inning while senior
Tyler Erickson and sophomore
Collin Kober shared the final scoreless and hitless frame.
Bradley 1, McNeese 0 (Feb 21, 2015 at Lake Charles, La.)----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradley............. 010 000 000 - 1 4 1 (4-1)
McNeese............. 000 000 000 - 0 5 2 (4-3)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Bradley - Adkins, Steve; Roegner, Cameron(7); Dennis, Matt(8) and Fairchild, Zach.
McNeese - Kingsley, Bryce; LaPeze, Cory(8); Erickson, Tyler(9); Kober, Collin(9) and
Toole, Cameron.
Win-Adkins, Steve(1-0) Loss-Kingsley, Bryce(1-1) T-1:27 A-642
Weather: 66; Cloudy; Wind: S 19 MPH
