LAKE CHARLES – Still rolling from its memorable win over nationally-ranked LSU the night before, the McNeese baseball team avoided the mythical "baseball hangover" and instead put the pieces together to score its sixth consecutive victory as the Cowboys defeated Louisiana Tech, 3-1, Wednesday night at Joe Miller Ballpark.
For the first time since the start of the 2015 season, the Pokes (20-11) have strung together six straight wins and for the third time under McNeese head coach
Justin Hill have won five or more games in a row.
Wednesday night's contest was McNeese's ninth consecutive against an opponent with a top-100 RPI rating. The Pokes hold a 7-2 record in those games with wins coming against Northwestern State (#34), Houston (#51), New Orleans (#56), LSU (#21) and Louisiana Tech (#77). All rankings are according to D1Baseball.com.
"I thought the guys threw the ball well tonight," said Hill. "We knew that we were going to have to piece it together tonight just because we had the weekend coming up so we wanted to keep everyone fresh. We knew there could have been an emotional letdown but I was proud of our guys. I thought Louisiana Tech played well and swung the bats well. It was a tightly contested game the entire time."
Starting pitcher
Bryce Kingsley (5-0) remained perfect on the year after tossing a pre-determined three innings against the Bulldogs in which he allowed just one run and scattered three hits and walking a batter. The Cowboys rode the bullpen the rest of the way as five pitchers combined for four hits and two walks given up and no runs scored through six innings.
Collin Kober picked up his fifth save of the season after having worked the last frame. Wednesday night's save pushed Kober into second all-time in career saves, tying Danny Davis. He is now three away from tying for first all-time.
Junior
Will Fox had an impressive night at the plate as he led the squad with two hits and a run scored while centerfielder
Ricky Ramirez and first baseman
Connor Crane each collected a hit. Ramirez and Crane drove in a run in the game as well as left fielder
Shane Selman.
For the second contest in a row, Crane put up the first run for the Pokes as he bombed a first inning solo homer over the left field wall to tie things up with Louisiana Tech, who scored in the top of the first. Crane's home run was a team-high seventh this season.
Ramirez gave McNeese a 2-1 lead in the third frame with a one-out single up the middle to score Fox.
The Pokes upped the lead to a two run ballgame as Selman flew out to right field for the sacrifice hit that pushed freshman
Dustin Duhon across the plate for the 3-1 lead.
Louisiana Tech fell to 18-11 on the year after picking up seven hits but only plating one run early in the game. The Bulldogs left five on base while McNeese stranded just one.
McNeese turns its attention back to Southland Conference action this weekend as the Cowboys prepare for a league showdown at rival Lamar in a three-game series set to take place at Vincent-Beck Stadium in Beaumont. All three contests are scheduled to be air live on KEZM – 1310 AM and on kezmonline.com.
McNeese 3, Louisiana Tech 1 (Apr 13, 2016 at Lake Charles, La.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Louisiana Tech...... 100 000 000 - 1 7 0 (18-11)
McNeese............. 101 001 00X - 3 4 1 (20-11)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Louisiana Tech - Braden Bristo; Adam Derouen(6); Casey Sullivan(7) and Brent Diaz;
Michael Deceglie. McNeese - Kingsley, Bryce; Rider, Zach(4); Briggs, Austin(6);
Fontenot, Trent(7); Ramirez, Ricky(8); Kober, Collin(9) and Duhon, Dustin.
Win-Kingsley, Bryce(5-0) Save-Kober, Collin(5) Loss-Braden Bristo(2-4) T-2:26 A-860
HR MCN - Crane, Connor (7).
Weather: 75: Overcast; Wind: S 4
