LAKE CHARLES – It was Cameron Toole's career night at the plate that helped lift the McNeese State baseball team to a series opening win Friday night against a squad that featured one of the top pitching staffs in the country as the Cowboys enjoyed a 9-1 victory over Nicholls at Cowboy Diamond.

The Pokes scored their first win over the Colonels during the regular season for the first time in the last six meetings. The win also improved McNeese's record to 23-19 overall on the season and 13-9 in conference play while Nicholls dipped to 23-15-1 and 10-9 in league action.

McNeese put together an excellent offensive production at the plate as the Pokes pounded out 11 hits, drew eight walks and scored nine runs against the Colonels. Nicholls entered the series ranked fourth in the nation in ERA. The Cowboys' eight-walks drawn tied the season-high after doing so against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi earlier in the month.

"I thought we had good at-bats right out of the gate," said head coach Justin Hill. "They took the lead in the first and could have went up by two but our offense answered right back. We were really good tonight and not just swinging the bats and executing. We drew some walks and did a great job of just battling the whole night."

Toole enjoyed one of the best nights of his career as the junior catcher put together a 3-for-4 batting performance while knocking in a career-high five runs in the process. Toole now stands second on the team with 23 RBIs this year.

"The positive about Cameron's at-bats is that you have guys getting on base ahead of him," said Hill. "You have to give credit to him as he has been swinging well with runners on base."

Junior right-hander Kaleb Fontenot (6-3) turned in another spectacular performance Friday night after tossing 8.0 innings and allowed just one run to score despite scattering eight hits. He walked just one batter and fanned seven along the way.

"Kaleb Fontenot did a great job on the mound for us as he hung up seven strikeouts tonight," said Hill. "After that, I was hoping he could finish it but with his pitch count high and with an eight run lead it just wasn't necessary to do that."

After falling behind a run in the top of the opening frame, McNeese wasted no time in tying the ballgame up as junior Billy Sommer's RBI-single knotted the score up at one run apiece for both teams.

The foot was laid down on the throttle in the bottom of the next innings as the Cowboys exploded for three runs that included RBI hits from Toole, freshman Joe Provenzano and senior Connor Lloyd. Lloyd finished the night with a hit and a walk along with two runs batted in.

With a three run lead, the Pokes tacked on a run in the fourth and fifth innings off of a two out walk from Lloyd and a RBI-single from Toole.

The Pokes added to their lead in the seventh inning as Toole dropped a bases loaded double into the outfield and abled three runs to score and help put the game out of reach as McNeese extended its lead to a 9-1 score.

McNeese will be back in action Saturday afternoon when they take the field against Nicholls in game two of the weekend series. First pitch is slated for 3 o'clock.

McNeese 9, Nicholls 1 (Apr 24, 2015 at Lake Charles, La.)
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Nicholls............ 100 000 000  -  1  8  2      (23-15-1, 10-9)
McNeese............. 130 110 30X  -  9 11  2      (23-19, 13-9)
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Pitchers: Nicholls - Deemes, Ryan; Thiac, Zach(4); Stapler, Cole(5); McDonald, Jason(8);
Hileman, Evan(8) and Correa, Christian. McNeese - Fontenot, Kaleb; Day, Tyler(9) and
Toole, Cameron.
Win-Fontenot, Kaleb(6-3)  Loss-Deemes, Ryan(4-2)  T-2:35  A-680
Weather: 79; Cloudy; S 15 MPH