CONWAY, Ark. – McNeese starting pitcher
Rhett Deaton tossed 7.0 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and only two walks to go along with a career-high nine strikeouts, while the McNeese baseball team withstood a late rally to earn a 5-3 victory over Central Arkansas Saturday afternoon at Bear Stadium.
Deaton (2-0) threw a career-high 101 pitches, 66 of which were for strikes, allowing just two UCA batters to advance past second base. After a pair of McNeese pitchers relieved Deaton,
Trent Fontenot entered to toss the last inning and earn his third save of the season and second this weekend.
Matt Gallier continued his hot hitting at the plate, registering a 4-for-5, one run effort to stretch his team-leading multiple hit games to nine.
Will Fox,
Robbie Podorsky and Ricky Ramirez added six hits and a collective four RBI on the day for the Pokes.
The seventh consecutive win pushed McNeese to an 11-4 overall mark on the year and 2-0 in SLC play while the Bears dipped to 6-10 this season with an 0-2 league record. It is the second year in a row that the Cowboys took the series from Central Arkansas.
McNeese jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to an RBI-single from Ramirez in the first inning. The Cowboys have now scored in the first inning of 12 games this season and own a 9-3 mark in those games. They are also 8-4 when scoring first.
The Pokes used three hits to add a pair of runs to the top side of the scoreboard for the 3-0 advantage over the Bears. The inning was highlighted by Podorsky's infield single-RBI.
Another two runs were added in the next frame by Fox who sent a single deep enough into right field to score two more runs for the Cowboys.
McNeese led 5-0 after six innings, but the Bears answered with three runs in the eighth inning. UCA got two runners on in the final frame but nothing would prevail for the home team.
The Pokes will look for the series sweep on Sunday when they take on Central Arkansas in the series finale at 1 p.m. Fans can follow all of the action on Twitter @McNeeseBaseball.
McNeese 5, Central Arkansas 3 (Mar 11, 2017 at Conway, Ark.)
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McNeese............. 100 022 000 - 5 15 1 (11-4, 2-0)
Central Arkansas.... 000 000 030 - 3 6 1 (6-10, 0-2)
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Pitchers: McNeese - Deaton, Rhett; Wesley, Tyler(8); Ashcraft, Grant(8); Fontenot, Trent(9) and
Whelton, Brett. Central Arkansas - Murray, Jacob; Hagerla, Brandon(5); Tillery, Gavin(7) and
Hancock, William.
Win-Deaton, Rhett(2-0) Save-Fontenot, Trent(3) Loss-Hagerla, Brandon(1-3) T-2:50 A-189
Weather: cloudy, 38 degrees
