HOUSTON, Texas – Saturday afternoon's series finale finished in dramatic fashion that was capped off by a two out bases loaded walk in the eighth inning and helped McNeese state baseball team take the lead and the victory to clinch the first Southland Conference series of the season with a 5-2 win over Houston Baptist.
The victory improved McNeese to 11-5 on the year along with a 2-1 mark in league action while the Huskies dropped to 7-8 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
The first seven innings provided a back-and-forth battle between the two squads before the Huskies scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the seventh to knot up the score 2-2.
Following sophomore
Matt Gallier's intentional walk to juice the bases in the top of the eighth, the Pokes found themselves in a hole after a strikeout handed the squad their second out of the inning.
Freshman
Joe Provenzano's patience allowed the second baseman to remain calm at the plate and was rewarded with a ball four that handed the lead back to McNeese and also set-up a crucial ninth inning that eventually gave the Cowboys the series.
The Pokes were able to load the bases again in the top of the ninth frame but this time was different. With two on and no outs, Guilbeau reached base on a sac bunt and throwing error. On the next play, senior
James Cantu's sacrifice fly allowed pinch hitter
Lucas Quary to reach home and extend the lead by two runs.
An insurance run was added on another sac fly from Gallier who scored junior
Connor Crane from third base to hand the Pokes a three run lead and the eventual victory.
Junior
Ethan Stremmel (2-0) earned his second victory of the week after tossing 4.1 innings in relief and allowed only one earned run to score on three hits and one walk. He fanned two batters in the process.
Sophomore
Collin Kober was credited with his team leading fourth save of the season after an appearance in the last two frames and closed out the game after allowing no hits or runs.
At the plate the Cowboys continued to flex their offensive muscle by recording 12 hits on the day with seven different batters getting a hit. Crane went 3-for-5 on the day with a double, an RBI and a run scored. Crane's double was his league leading ninth on the year. Crane is now hitting .338 (23-for-68) with nine double, a triple, two homers and five RBI this year, while McNeese is hitting .287 and are averaging 10 hits per game.
In addition to Crane's three hits,
Billy Sommers (2-for-4),
Connor Lloyd (2-for-4) and Provenzano (2-for-2) collected multi-hit games while Guillotte recorded his fourth double of the season. Guillotte finished the week batting .450 (9-for-20) with three doubles, four runs scored and one RBI.
McNeese got on the board in the third inning following a RBI hit from Guilbeau to take a 1-0. HBU responded with a run of its own in the fourth to tie the ballgame while the Cowboys added another run from Crane's RBI double in the fifth to take a 2-1 lead.
The Pokes will be back in action this week when they make their annual trip to Baton Rouge to take on in-state foe and college baseball perennial powerhouse LSU at Alex Box Stadium on Wednesday, March 11. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m.
McNeese 5, Houston Baptist 2 (Mar 07, 2015 at Houston, Texas)----------------------------------------------------------------------
McNeese............. 001 010 012 - 5 12 1 (11-5, 2-1 SLC)
Houston Baptist..... 000 100 100 - 2 5 2 (7-8, 1-2 SLC)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: McNeese - Fontenot, Trent; Stremmel, Ethan(3); Kober, Collin(8) and Toole, Cameron.
Houston Baptist - Jones, Cu.; Hammerly, B.(8); Zarosky, D.(9) and Wiggins, S..
Win-Stremmel, Ethan(2-0) Save-Kober, Collin(4) Loss-Jones, Cu.(1-2) T-2:49 A-245
Weather: 58 deg, overcast, calm
Jones, Cu. faced 1 batter in the 8th.
Hammerly, B. faced 2 batters in the 9th.
