LAKE CHARLES – The McNeese baseball bats struggled early but heated up in the latter part of Wednesday night's mid-week contest while the Cowboys pitched effectively throughout the game to rally back and defeat Louisiana Tech, 5-3, at Joe Miller Ballpark.
The victory improved McNeese to 20-9 overall on the year while Louisiana Tech dipped to 19-11 this season. The Cowboys now hold eight wins over in-state schools after having snapped a three-game mid-week losing skid.
The Bulldogs took a three run lead in the top of the first frame while McNeese cut into the score in the bottom half due to an RBI-sacrifice fly from
Ricky Ramirez, Jr. to make it a 3-1 ballgame.
Following the three runs surrendered, the Cowboy pitching staff retired seven straight until Louisiana Tech reached on a hit by pitch in the fourth inning.
However, the Cowboy staff remained strong through the ninth frame where it retired 15 consecutive batters until Raphael Gladu broke the streak in the ninth frame.
Starting pitcher
Aidan Anderson surrendered three runs on four hits through the first two frames of the ballgame. Following that, the McNeese bullpen tossed five scoreless innings allowing only three hits and no runs while striking out six and walking none.
Grant Anderson (5-0) remained perfect on the season after having allowed no runs or hits in the sixth inning.
After only recording three hits in the first four innings of the ballgame, the Cowboys broke open for seven hits the rest of the way along with four runs to take down the Bulldogs.
In the sixth, McNeese cut the lead to one run as Ramirez, Jr. took advantage of a Bulldog miscue and scored from third on a wild pitch.
A Louisiana Tech error in the top of the seventh allowed the Cowboys to score two runs as
Dustin Duhon knotted the game up with a single to right center while Ramirez, Jr. struck again with a RBI-sac fly for the go-ahead run.
Matt Gallier dropped an insurance run over the right field wall to lead off the eighth and stretch the McNeese lead to a 5-3 score.
Gallier and
Robbie Podorsky led the offensive side on the night with three hits each while Ramirez, Jr. drove in a team-high two runs. Podorsky stole two bases on the night to up his season total to a league-high 16 bases this season.
Collin Kober closed out the game in the final frame as he allowed just one hit on 12 pitches, all strikes, and picked up his fourth save of the season.
McNeese returns to Southland Conference play this weekend as it hits the road to Abilene Christian for a three-game series with the Wildcats beginning Friday at 6 p.m.
McNeese 5, Louisiana Tech 3 (Apr 05, 2017 at Lake Charles, La.)
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Louisiana Tech...... 300 000 000 - 3 7 1 (19-11)
McNeese............. 100 001 21X - 5 10 0 (20-9)
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Pitchers: Louisiana Tech - Cameron Linck; Griffen, Kyle(4); Matt Miller(6); Graham Ahlrich(8)
and Brent Diaz. McNeese - Anderson, Aidan; Rider, Zach(3); King, Bryan(5); McLemore, Peyton(6);
Anderson, Grant(7); Fontenot, Trent(8); Kober, Collin(9) and Duhon, Dustin.
Win-Anderson, Grant(5-0) Save-Kober, Collin(4) Loss-Matt Miller(1-1) T-2:41 A-1040
HR MCN - Gallier, Matt (8).
Weather: 71; Perfect; Wind: NW 16 MPH
Miller, M faced 2 batters in the 8th.
