LAKE CHARLES – The McNeese baseball team celebrated Senior Day in pure fashion Sunday afternoon as the Cowboys kept their postseason hopes alive with a 6-4 victory over Central Arkansas and clinch their final Southland Conference series of the regular season at Joe Miller Ballpark.
 
With the conference portion of its schedule finished, McNeese (26-22, 15-15 SLC) will now head to Pullman, Washington for a four-game, non-conference dual with Washington State to close out the regular season. Meanwhile, the Pokes will be closely watching the league scoreboard during the time in the northwest next weekend.
 
The Cowboys currently sit in seventh place ahead of Central Arkansas and Houston Baptist, who will face the top two teams in the league next weekend. With three games left in conference, either squad will most likely have to sweep their series in order to knock the Pokes out of contention for the conference tournament.
 
McNeese still has a chance to finish as high as sixth to close out the regular season if New Orleans loses two games to Nicholls next weekend.
 
Despite all of the talk about postseason and the would-be distractions of Senior Day, the Cowboys focused in on winning its final home series of the season.
 
McNeese locked in early having scored a couple of runs in the first three innings to take a 2-0 lead over Central Arkansas (24-25, 13-14 SLC) with help from Austin Nelson's RBI-single in the first and Joe Provenzano's RBI-hit in the third.
 
Provenzano led all batters on the day with four hits and two RBI while senior Lewis Guilbeau batted 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI. Four total McNeese batters collected multiple hits Sunday while the Cowboys churned out 14 hits during the game to extend its streaks of 10 or more hits in a game to five on the year.
 
The Pokes are now 14-3 on the year when scoring in the first inning and 18-8 when scoring first in the game.
 
Trent Fontenot (3-2) picked up the win after having tossed 2.0 innings in relief work allowing just one hit. Starting pitcher Bryce Kingsley gave the Pokes a quality start with 6.0 frames of work and only three earned runs allowed on seven hits while striking out seven.
 
Ace closer Collin Kober tied the McNeese all-time saves record in the final inning of the contest where he collected his 17^th career save. He now needs only one more to pass former McNeese player and head coach Chad Clement.
 
With the game knotted up at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning, junior third baseman Matt Gallier delivered came through with a clutch play once again as he delivered a two-out, RBO-groundout to give McNeese the lead. One play later, freshman Shane Selman gave the Pokes a two-run cushion following an RBI-single for the 4-2 lead.
 
However, UCA would tie the ballgame again in the seventh to make it a 4-4 ballgame but it was Guilbeau's RBI-single that put the Cowboys ahead once again while a wild pitch allowed Ricky Ramirez to score and make it a 6-4 ballgame.
 
Ramirez extended his reached base streak to 15 consecutive games Sunday with a hit and a walk.
 
McNeese 6, Central Arkansas 4 (May 15, 2016 at Lake Charles, La.)
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Central Arkansas.... 000 110 200  -  4  8  2      (24-25, 13-14 SLC)
McNeese............. 101 020 02X  -  6 14  1      (26-22, 15-15 SLC)
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Pitchers: Central Arkansas - Tice, Ty; Murray, Jacob(5); McClain, Connor(6); Gray, Tyler(8) and
McCarty, Justin. McNeese - Kingsley, Bryce; Fontenot, Trent(7); Kober, Collin(9) and
Toole, Cameron.
Win-Fontenot, Trent(3-2)  Save-Kober, Collin(8)  Loss-McClain, Connor(1-1)  T-2:54  A-464
Weather: 74; Overcast; Wind: ENE 7
Tice, T. faced 3 batters in the 5th.
Kingsley, B. faced 3 batters in the 7th.