LAKE CHARLES – The McNeese baseball team returns to action on the diamond this week as the Cowboys make the trip up to North Louisiana Tuesday evening for a mid-week rematch with the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson park.
The game is set for a 6 p.m. first pitch and is a rematch from two weeks ago in Lake Charles when the Pokes took a 3-1 victory over Louisiana Tech at Joe Miller Ballpark.
McNeese (23-14) looks to rebound from a Southland Conference series loss to Southeastern Louisiana over the weekend even though the Cowboys avoided the sweep with a thrilling comeback 7-6 victory over the Lions Sunday.
It has been a tough stretch of contests for McNeese as of late with the last 15 games coming against teams who rank in the top-100 of the RPI. However, the Pokes have performed well and posted a 10-5 record during that span with wins over Northwestern State, No. 24 Houston, New Orleans, No. 9 LSU, Louisiana Tech, Lamar and Southeastern Louisiana.
The Cowboys have had great success on the road the past few weeks having won eight of their last 10 contests including three wins over ranked opponents.
Senior
Connor Crane leads McNeese offensively with a .352 batting average along with 50 hits, 36 runs scored, 13 doubles, one triple, eight home runs, 31 RBI and 14 stolen bases. Outfielder
Lewis Guilbeau is second with a .339 clip with 43 hits and 15 runs scored.
As a team, McNeese is batting a .273 clip with 195 runs scored, 67 doubles, 10 triples, 21 home runs and 44 stolen bases through 37 games. On the mound, the Pokes have a 3.69 ERA, with 10 saves, walking 120 batters and striking out 299 in 334.0 frames of work, posting a .976 fielding percentage.
Left-hander
Austin Sanders (3-2, 4.67 ERA) is expected to make his seventh start of the year for McNeese. Sanders has been amazing on the mound this season when starting against big teams. The Olathe, Kansas native has three wins over ranked opponents (ULL, Houston and LSU) this year. In those three games, Sanders has allowed only two earned runs through 18.1 innings for a 0.98 ERA.
Louisiana Tech (23-13) scored a conference series win over Old Dominion last weekend and have won four of its last five games. The Bulldogs have proved that they are tough to play at home as they sport a 14-5 record at Love Field.
The Bulldogs are hitting .289 as a team with six players hitting above .300 entering the mid-week game. Jonathan Washam leads the way for Louisiana Tech with a .397 average in 30 games played while brother Jordan Washam is second on the team with a .337 clip along with 34 hits, 22 RBI and three homers. The Louisiana Tech pitching staff holds a 3.63 ERA with 295 strikeouts and 122 walks in 312.0 innings of work.
Louisiana Tech has yet to name a starter for the Tuesday night contest.
