LAKE CHARLES – It was missed opportunities that once again haunted the McNeese baseball team as the Cowboys left five runners stranded in the final three innings of Sunday's series finale and fell to Houston Baptist, 7-5, at Cowboy Diamond.
The conference series loss was the first at home for the Cowboys (7-7, 1-2 SLC) since 2014 and the first series loss at home this season.
McNeese trailed by six runs early in the game following a five-run burst from HBU (10-6, 2-1 SLC) in the third inning. However, McNeese continued to chop away at the lead but eventually succumbed to a few misfortunes.
"Today was a matter of putting nine innings together mentally," said head coach
Justin Hill. "While our guys were engaged and ready to go, we kept fighting and fought back from six down but we just dug ourselves a hole too early. We were not sharp on the mound and fell behind."
McNeese starter
Austin Sanders (1-2) took the loss in his first weekend start but it was the arm of junior
Collin Kober who was able to breathe life into the Cowboy defense. He worked 3.1 innings on the day and gave up one run and scattered three hits. He struck out a game-high four hitters in the game.
"While they (HBU) didn't initially hit some balls hard, we were putting them in better counts so we had to give in on the pitching side more because we were not ahead," said Hill.
McNeese looked to have gotten things going in the early start but fell victim to mental mistakes on the base paths. The Pokes were caught stealing twice through the first four innings.
"We made some mistakes on the paths and it was just mental mistakes which in term looked like physical mistakes but were just mental," said Hill. "I do like how we keep fighting though. When we get things clicking and are hooked in for nine innings, we are going to be pretty tough."
The Pokes cut into the lead in the bottom of the fourth as they used a two-RBI single from sophomore
Joe Provenzano that made it a 6-2 ballgame. In the next frame, freshman
Shane Selman's third home run of the season dwindled the Huskies lead down to a two-run ball game.
Selman and Provenzano were the only two Cowboys to record multiple-RBI in the game while
Ricky Ramirez and
Connor Crane led the squad with two hits each. Seven total McNeese batters hit in the contest.
In the seventh inning, McNeese looked to make a rally with the bases loaded and two outs as Crane came to the plate. With a 0-2 count against him, Crane was unable to move the runners over and left the bases juiced.
HBU stretched its lead to a three-run game in the top of the seventh but it was McNeese that chopped at the scoreboard once more in the bottom frame with a sacrifice fly from pinch hitter
Jake Cochran. The run made it a 7-5 ballgame but the Pokes again could not get anything going and stranded the two runners left on base.
The Cowboys will be back in action in the coming week as they host ULM in a two-game mid-week series beginning Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Houston Baptist 7, McNeese 5 (Mar 13, 2016 at Lake Charles, La.)
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Houston Baptist..... 105 000 010 - 7 14 2 (10-6, 2-1 SLC)
McNeese............. 000 220 010 - 5 9 1 (7-7, 1-2 SLC)
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Pitchers: Houston Baptist - Griego, Julian; Zarosky, Dylan(7) and Thomas, Blake. McNeese -
Sanders, Austin; Fontenot, Trent(3); Briggs, Austin(6); Kober, Collin(6) and Duhon, Dustin.
Win-Griego, Julian(3-0) Save-Zarosky, Dylan(5) Loss-Sanders, Austin(1-2) T-2:50 A-355
HR MCN - Selman, Shane (3).
Weather: 72; Partly Cloudy; Wind: 4 ESE
Griego, J. faced 1 batter in the 7th.
