NEW ORLEANS – The McNeese baseball team built a big lead early Sunday afternoon and never let down as the Cowboys completed the Southland Conference series sweep over the highly touted New Orleans Privateers in a 13-3 eight-inning victory at Maestri Field.
With the win, McNeese improved to 18-11 on the season and 10-5 in league play while dropping UNO to 18-13 overall and 4-8 in SLC action. It was the first time this season that the Privateers have lost a weekend series.
The Cowboys flexed their muscles over the three weekend games, becoming the first team this year to sweep the Privateers on their home turf. McNeese also came up with three wins against a talented squad who sported a top 35 RPI ranking entering the league series. The Pokes has now swept two conference opponents this season including Abilene Christian.
The win was also McNeese head coach
Justin Hill's 80
th career victory since taking over the Cowboy baseball program in 2014.
It was an all around team effort for the Pokes who pounded out 14 hits in the ballgame, accompanied by seven-extra base efforts. Senior
Lewis Guilbeau continued an impressive weekend with a 2-for-5 outing along with two runs scored, two doubles and three RBI. Junior
Will Fox churned out three RBI's while
Matt Gallier and
Joe Provenzano each drove in two as well.
Cameron Toole turned in his third multiple-hit chart of the series as the senior catcher put up solid numbers with six hits, four RBI, three doubles and a run scored for a .545 batting clip and .818 slugging percentage.
Senior
Ethan Stremmel (2-1) picked up the victory after an exceptional day on the mound as he tossed 6.2 frames and allowed just three runs (two earned) while scattering eight hits while having struck out three batters.
As it did throughout the weekend, the Cowboys squad took advantage of early scoring and posted six runs on the board in the first frame. McNeese used four-extra base hits highlighted by Fox's three-RBI triple that helped gained the momentum. The Pokes outscored UNO 10-1 in the first inning of all three league games over the weekend.
New Orleans responded with a pair of runs in the next frame while both teams scraped across a run in the fifth to make it a 7-3 ballgame in favor of McNeese. Provenzano homered for the second time this season as he led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo bomb that landed over the right field wall.
The Pokes collected six more runs across the final two innings of the ballgame after collecting six hits along the way. Guilbeau was responsible for two of the runs scored even though he was credited with only one RBI due to a run sored off of an error.
The ballgame was called in the eighth inning due to the league's Sunday mercy rule.
McNeese will turn its attention to a busy agenda over the next week as the Pokes play five games in six days beginning with a mid-week contest at LSU Tuesday evening starting at 6:30 p.m.
McNeese 13, New Orleans 3 (Apr 10, 2016 at New Orleans, La.)
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McNeese............. 600 010 24 - 13 14 1 (18-11, 10-5)
New Orleans......... 020 010 00 - 3 9 1 (18-14, 4-8)
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Pitchers: McNeese - Stremmel, Ethan; Fontenot, Trent(7); Kober, Collin(8) and Toole, Cameron;
Duhon, Dustin. New Orleans - Warzek, Bryan; Martinez, Daniel(1); Medine, Hunter(7) and
Bracey, Kyle.
Win-Stremmel, Ethan(2-1) Loss-Warzek, Bryan(1-3) T-2:30 A-408
HR MCN - Provenzano, Joe (2).
