LAKE CHARLES – The McNeese State baseball team's hitting woes continued at Cowboy Diamond on Sunday as the Cowboys failed to produce a run for the third straight game and were swept by the Bradley, 5-0, in the series finale.
McNeese (4-4) will now turn its focus towards an in-state rival that was one game away from a College World Series appearance in Louisiana-Lafayette. Barring a threat of inclement weather, the Pokes will travel to take on the Ragin' Cajuns in a contest slated for a 6 o'clock start.
The Cowboys will look to put a 28 1/3 scoreless inning streak to rest Tuesday when they travel east to take on their in-state rival. The three-game shutout was the first recorded in school history.
"This is one of those situations where you have to take a step back and realize that this is a long season with a 56-game schedule and we are only eight in right now," said head coach
Justin Hill. "Sometimes you have to get away from that and learn and grow from this."
Bradley (5-1) was led by starting pitcher Brent Stong who tossed eight scoreless innings, giving up only four hits along with four strikeouts. Reliever Stephen Toma came appeared in the final inning to complete the shutout despite giving up two hits.
Sophomore
Trent Fontenot (1-1) was charged with the loss after 4.1 innings of work and three earned runs on four hits and a walk. However, Fontenot set a new career-high in strikeouts during his outing with seven on the day.
The Cowboys collected six hits on the day highlighted by a multi-hit performance by senior
Andrew Guillotte. The Moss Bluff native batted 2-for-3 in the contest while
Connor Crane, Garrett LaRosa and
Kris Molter each recorded a hit. Freshman
Joe Provenzano entered the game as a pinch hitter in the final frame and collected a hit for the Pokes.
"You are going to face adversity throughout the season but we want to try to make sure you can overcome that," said Hill. "That is what our message to the team was in that we have to execute better and do things better as a team. I thought we pitched well all weekend but we can't be satisfied. We need to have a total team effort."
Guillotte's first hit of the day came on the leadoff at-bat for McNeese but a double play and a fly out prevented any hopes of scoring.
The Braves grabbed a three run lead in the top of the fourth inning, scoring on an RBI-single followed by a two run double later in the inning.
Crane extended his hitting streak to eight games in the bottom of the frame when he sent a single to left field.
Bradley added a run in the fifth inning when second baseman Chris Godinez's ground out allowed Evan Gruener to score from third.
An insurance run was added in the eighth inning when centerfielder Brady Wilkin's triple to left field brought home Godinez to score and up the Braves' lead to a 5-0 advantage.
The Cowboys looked for an opportunity in their last at-bat with back-to-back hits from Guillotte and Provenzano but were cursed by consecutive strike outs to end the series.
Bradley 5, McNeese 0 (Feb 22, 2015 at Lake Charles, La.)----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bradley............. 000 310 010 - 5 6 0 (5-1)
McNeese............. 000 000 000 - 0 6 2 (4-4)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Bradley - Stong, Brent; Toma, Stephen(9) and Kristan, Ian. McNeese - Fontenot, Trent;
O'Bryant, Steven(5); Erickson, Tyler(7); Prejean, Cole(8); LaPeze, Cory(8) and Toole, Cameron.
Win-Stong, Brent(1-0) Loss-Fontenot, Trent(1-1) T-2:07 A-555
Weather: 63; Cloudy; Wind: ENE 3 MPH
