SUGAR LAND, Texas –Kaleb Fontenot came out on the better side of a pitcher's duel in Wednesday's Southland Conference Tournament opening matchup as the senior right-hander worked an eight-inning shutout gem to pitch the McNeese baseball team past Southland Conference Player of the Year Adam Oller and Northwestern State, 3-0, to advance to the winner's bracket.
 
McNeese moves on to face the winner of the Southeastern Louisiana/New Orleans game Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.
 
Fontenot, a second-team All-SLC selection, was near perfect in his outing as he helped the Cowboys (30-23) come out on top with 8.0 scoreless innings of work to limit the Demons (33-23) to two hits and allowed three walks. He improved to 6-5 on the year while tying his career-high of 12 strikeouts in the game.
 
He now has 108 strikeouts on the season which ranks third all-time in the McNeese record book and is one shy of tying Ray Fontenot for second place.
 
"Kaleb Fontenot was really good today," said head coach Justin Hill. "I am proud of our hitters and what they did. They were able to grind out at-bats throughout the day. We had some chances early but weren't able to punch it through. Adam Oller made some great pitches and they made some good plays behind him.  Our kids kept going trying to find a way to punch it across and Kaleb gave us that opportunity to do that today."
 
Another McNeese pitcher etched his name in the McNeese record books as junior reliever Collin Kober set the all-time saves record with 18 in his career passing up former Cowboy pitcher and head coach Chad Clement after completing the shutout in the final frame.
 
It was the sixth time this season that the Cowboys have shutout an opponent and the second time to blank the Demons this year.
 
Oller (8-1) suffered his first loss of the season as he struggled through 7.0 frames of work with one run and five hits allowed while walking a season-high five batters along the way.
 
"We knew that we were actually going to have to knock him out of the ballgame but our guys extended at-bats, put the ball in play and took the walks," said Hill. "That is two appearances he has had against us this year and the most guys he has walked so it is just a credit to our guys and what Coach Zaleski has done with them. I thought we had a great approach today."
 
It seemed as though the two squads were headed towards another extra-inning affair until a fielding error from the Demons in the top of the seventh allowed senior Cameron Toole to score from third to take the 1-0 lead over Northwestern State.
 
It was the gutsy calls from the Cowboy coaching staff in the next inning that allowed McNeese to lay down back-to-back bunts with the bases loaded to score a pair of runs to cushion the lead to a 3-0 score. With one out, Toole came up with another big play as he laid down a squeeze bunt to drive home the second run for McNeese while junior Ricky Ramirez followed with a sacrifice bunt to score the third and final run of the game.
 
"We thought from a personnel standpoint it was the right call," said Hill. "The situation happens where we can get the runner up and get Cameron Toole on base with that because they didn't have anyone covering first base. Then the situation right behind it where it felt like with the momentum it was right call. Coach Zaleski and I were on the same page and he made a great call with that situation."
 
The Pokes collected 10 hits in the ballgame and were led by junior shortstop Will Fox who hit three times in the game while junior Matt Gallier recorded a multiple-hit outing with two. Seven total batters collected at least one hit in the game.
 
For the first time since 2000, the McNeese baseball team has recorded 30 or more victories in a season three years in a row.  The Pokes also picked up their first win in the SLC Tournament since 2014 and also picked up their first victory at Constellation Field since the tournament was moved to Sugar Land three years ago.
 
McNeese 3, Northwestern State 0 (May 25, 2016 at Sugar Land, Texas)
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McNeese............. 000 000 120  -  3 10  0      (30-23)
Northwestern State.. 000 000 000  -  0  4  1      (33-23)
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Pitchers: McNeese - Fontenot, Kaleb; Kober, Collin(9) and Toole, Cameron. Northwestern State -
Oller, Adam; Stovall, Jeffrey(8) and Garner, Daniel.
Win-Fontenot, Kaleb(6-5)  Save-Kober, Collin(9)  Loss-Oller, Adam(8-1)  T-2:42  A-0
Weather: 80 deg, cloudy, SSE 9-11 mph