ABILENE, Texas – The McNeese State baseball club split a pair of Southland Conference baseball games with Abilene Christian Sunday afternoon after picking up a 5-4 victory in a game resumed from the day before to even the series before the Wildcats completed a 3-0 shutout over the Cowboys to take the series at Crutcher Scott Field.

The victory in the second game was completed just 21 hours after being halted due to rain as the Cowboys (16-8, 6-3) held off the Wildcats in the final two innings to take the win.

In the third and final game of the series, ACU used a complete game shutout effort from starting pitcher Thomas Alimont to help post the Wildcats blank McNeese for the second time on the weekend.

The Cowboys will be back in action on Tuesday, March 24 when they welcome in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette to Lake Charles for a mid-week showdown. Following the contest with the Cajuns, the Pokes will travel to Natchitoches to take on Northwestern State in a three-game league series.

Below is a recap of both games:

Game 2: McNeese State 5, Abilene Christian 4

With the skies clear and the field dry, both teams resumed action in the bottom of the eighth inning on Sunday afternoon as McNeese clung to a 5-3 lead over ACU.

The Wildcats rebooted the contest with two runners in scoring position along with two outs and a 3-2 count on the batter. McNeese reliever Collin Kober helped the Pokes out of a jam as Alex Copeland flew out to center and ended the inning.

After failing to score any runs in the top of the last inning, the Cowboys held off a last ditch scoring effort from Wildcats who plated a run with two outs and cut the lead to one run.

However, ACU struck out on the last at-bat as the Cowboys evened the series at 1-1.

Trent Fontenot (3-1) picked up the win after tossing 6.0 innings and allowed only one run to score and five hits. He struck out three in the process.

Kober picked up his fifth save of the year after delivering the last 1.2 innings and gave up just one run on three hits.

James Cantu and Joe Provenzano each recorded three hits in the game while Connor Crane knocked in two runs.

McNeese 5, Abilene Christian 4 (Mar 21, 2015 at Abilene, Texas)
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McNeese............. 000 041 000  -  5 11  1      (16-7, 6-2 SLC)
Abilene Christian... 010 000 021  -  4  9  0      (4-15, 3-5 SLC)
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Pitchers: McNeese - Fontenot, Trent; Prejean, Cole(7); LaPeze, Cory(8); Kober, Collin(8) and
Toole, Cameron. Abilene Christian - A. Mason; D. Hanson(6); N. Cole(9) and A. Copeland.
Win-Fontenot, Trent(3-1)  Save-Kober, Collin(5)  Loss-A. Mason(0-3)  T-21:00  A-645
HR MCN - Gallier, Matt (3).
Weather: Cool, overcast

Game 3: Abilene Christian 3, McNeese State 0

Abilene Christian's Thomas Alimont pitched a complete game shutout while the ACU offense delivered seven hits and three runs to help score the series win over McNeese in the finale on Sunday.

Alimont worked nine innings and gave up only five hits and one walk while having struck out five batters.

The Cowboys received two hits from Crane and Bryce Packard in the contest while Lewis Guilbeau was the only other Cowboy to get a bat on the ball.

Starting pitcher Ethan Stremmel (3-2) was charged with the loss despite pitching six innings and gave up only three runs off of seven hits and no walks. He fanned four batters during the outing.

Cole Prejean worked the final two innings and allowed no runs and no hits.

Abilene Christian took a one run lead in the first inning and extended its lead in the second on a pair of RBI hits to take a 3-0 lead that would hold until the end of the contest.

McNeese threatened to score during the last at-bat when Crane smacked a double off of the left center wall. A two-out walk from Lucas Quary gave the Pokes new life as the game was extended again with a wild pitch that advanced the runners into scoring position.

The Cowboys were unable to capitalize in the final inning and drop the series finale.

Abilene Christian 3, McNeese 0 (Mar 22, 2015 at Abilene, Texas)
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McNeese............. 000 000 000  -  0  5  0      (16-8, 6-3 SLC)
Abilene Christian... 120 000 00X  -  3  7  1      (5-15, 4-5 SLC)
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Pitchers: McNeese - Stremmel, Ethan; Prejean, Cole(7) and Toole, Cameron; LaRosa, Garrett.
Abilene Christian - T. Altimont and A. Copeland.
Win-T. Altimont(1-4)  Loss-Stremmel, Ethan(3-2)  T-2:08  A-650
Weather: Partly cloudy, cool