WACO, Texas – The McNeese baseball fired up the bats and got back on track Wednesday evening as the Cowboys churned out a 12-7 victory over Baylor to close out the mid-week portion of its schedule at Baylor Ballpark in Waco.
McNeese (24-21) has now collected three victories over "Power Five" conference members this season including Houston, LSU and now Baylor (20-25). The Cowboys also registered their first win against a Big 12 for the first time since the 2006 season when they defeated Baylor in Lake Charles.
The Pokes collected 17 hits during the game and received multiple-hit efforts from four different McNeese batters. Junior
Will Fox led the offensive attack with a 4-for-5 showing along with a run scored and an RBI. Fox is now just one of four McNeese baseball players to record four or more hits during a game this season. Senior
Connor Crane hit three times during the contest and drove in three runs while sophomore
Joe Provenzano collected three RBI on his two hits.
Freshman pitcher
Bryan King (5-3) picked up the win after having worked only one inning and gave up one run and struck out a batter. The Cowboys used eight pitchers total on the night with starter
Austin Sanders providing the longest outing with two innings pitched and two strikeouts.
After scoring two runs in the bottom of the second inning, Baylor found itself on the flip side of the attack as McNeese exploded for nine runs in the next frame to take a seven run lead over the Bears. The Pokes used seven hits and one error during the inning as Crane provided two-RBI's while Provenzano drove in two more towards the end with a two-out single into right.
The Bears scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the McNeese lead to a 10-7 score after the two squads traded runs throughout the first couple of innings. Freshman
Shane Selman provided the only other run for the Pokes in the fourth inning as he blasted his seventh home run of the year.
With Baylor closing in on the lead, McNeese did what it always does and kept fighting an eventually cranked out two runs in the seventh that would stretch the lead out of the Bears' reach as Crane and Provenzano once again provided an RBI-hit each to extend the McNeese lead to a 12-7 score.
Baylor had 12 hits in the ballgame and seven on base while the Cowboys stranded 11 on the bags and committed no errors.
McNeese returns home for its final weekend series at Joe Miller Ballpark as the Cowboys prepare to take on Central Arkansas in Southland Conference action starting Friday at 6 p.m. The team will celebrate Senior Day Sunday afternoon.
McNeese 12, Baylor 7 (May 11, 2016 at Waco, Texas)
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McNeese............. 009 100 200 - 12 17 0 (24-21)
Baylor.............. 022 030 000 - 7 12 2 (20-25)
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Pitchers: McNeese - Sanders, Austin; Rider, Zach(3); King, Bryan(4); Anderson, Grant(5);
Briggs, Austin(6); Anderson, Aidan(7); Fontenot, Trent(8); Kober, Collin(9) and Duhon, Dustin;
Toole, Cameron. Baylor - Hill, Kyle; Lewis, Nick(3); Hessemer, Kody(3); McInvale, Andrew(5);
Heineman, Joe(7); Ott, Kyle(9) and Menard, Matt.
Win-King, Bryan(5-3) Loss-Hill, Kyle(1-4) T-3:28 A-1852
HR MCN - Selman, Shane (7).
HR BU - Sheppard, Darryn (7).
Weather: 87, clear, 23 MPH S
Hill, K. faced 3 batters in the 3rd.
