HOUSTON, Texas – The McNeese baseball team held an early lead and stood toe-to-toe with one of the nation's ranked teams but it was the No. 24 Houston Cougars who used a pair of home runs to hit past the Cowboys and score a 6-5 mid-week victory at Schroeder Park Tuesday night.
The loss snapped McNeese's eight-game winning streak and dropped the Pokes to 12-5 overall on the season. The Cougars improved to a 10-5 mark on the season and 7-2 at home.
For the 14
th time this season, the Cowboys took the first lead of the ballgame with an RBI effort from catcher
Dustin Duhon as he singled and scored
Robbie Podorsky from second base to take the 1-0 lead.
Podorsky led the offensive attack for McNeese on the evening with a pair of hits along with two runs scored and two stolen bases. The Prairieville, Louisiana native now leads the Southland Conference with 12 stolen bases on the season.
Houston plated three runs in the bottom of the inning to take a two-run lead over the Pokes as shortstop Jake Scheiner launched a three-run homer into left field.
Matt Gallier's fourth home run of the season was sent sailing deep in the third inning to knot the score up 3-3 between the two squads. Gallier extended his reached base streak to a team-best 15 contests with the launch and now leads the team with 21 RBI on the year.
Scheiner struck again in the bottom of the frame as he launched another multiple-run homer where his bomb landed on the top of the centerfield wall, propelling the Cougars to a 5-3 advantage.
Houston scored another run to go up by three in the fourth.
Shane Selman's first home run of the year came in the top of the ninth as the Lake Charles product slammed a two-run bomb to cut the lead to a 6-5 score.
Tyler Wesley (1-1) took the loss after working the first three frames and allowed four earned runs on six hits while having fanned two batters.
The McNeese bullpen allowed one run the rest of the way as
Grant Ashcraft and
Peyton McLemore shared mound time and allowed two combined hits and struck out four total batters.
McNeese and Houston each hit eight times and committed two errors while the Cougars left five on base and the Pokes stranded four.
The Cowboys step back in to conference action this weekend when they host Stephen F. Austin in a three-game series at Joe Miller Ballpark.