SUGAR LAND, Texas – McNeese jumped on Houston Baptist starting pitcher Daniel Endsley for two first-inning runs but then the regular Sunday starter settled in to keep the Cowboys' bats off balance as the Huskies held on to beat the top-seeded Cowboys 5-4 and eliminating the conference champions from the Southland Conference Tournament here Friday afternoon.
 
McNeese (37-20) now must wait on a call from the NCAA on Monday to see if they've been selected for a well-deserved postseason bid into next week's regionals.
 
"Our kids deserve to play one more weekend," said head coach Justin Hill whose team has put together an impressive résumé for the postseason committee to ponder.
 
On Friday, McNeese scattered 11 hits in the game but was never able to get that big inning by stringing hits together and only one of those hits went for extra-bases.
 
The top four batters in the lineup combined to go 8-for-19 on the day with three runs scored. Ricky Ramirez, Jr. led the way with a 3-for-4 game with a double, RBI and two run scored. But the Cowboys left nine runners stranded on base with four of those in scoring position.
 
"I have to give a lot of credit to their pitcher," said Hill. "We came out and ambushed him in the first inning. He settled in and pitched into the ninth inning. I thought we hit some balls hard but they play some really good defense and turned some double plays."
 
McNeese's defense took some lumps that led to some Huskies scoring.
 
In the third inning and McNeese leading 2-1, HBU loaded the bases after a single up the middle then on a bunt single where pitcher Bryan King fielded the ball and was set to go to first base for the out, but nobody was covering as first baseman Mitchell Rogers had also made a charge to field the ball and Zane Otten was credited with a bunt single. Brandon Brintz then attempted to advance the runners with a bunt, and again King fielded and had time to get the lead runner at third base, but the throw was low and Matt Gallier was unable to glove the ball.
 
After a strike out, Jake Pulcheon singled through the left side to score two runs to make it 5-2 before the next batter hit into a double play to end the rally.
 
"Defensively we had some mistakes," said Hill. "In a tight ball game, it ended up costing us a little bit. That's baseball and it's going to happen. It just magnified it a little bit with it being the postseason."
 
Endsley was pulled with one out in the ninth inning after throwing 131 pitches and allowing four runs on 10 hits.
 
"We got two runs in the first inning then he (Endsley) just bared down and made good pitches on us," said Ramirez who knocked his 22^nd double of the season, one short of tying the single-season school record. "We hit a few hard line drives but they were right at people."
 
McNeese made it 5-3 when Ramirez blasted a two-out double to center field then scored on a Gallier RBI single to right field.
 
In the sixth, the Cowboys got two runners on with one out but was unable to get anything across the plate.
 
The Cowboys closed the gap to 5-4 with a run in the eighth inning after Joe Provenzano started things off by reaching on a walk. He then moved around to third base after a failed pickoff attempt on him by HBU catcher Blake Thomas.
 
Shane Selman drove him in with a sacrifice fly to right field to cut the gap to 5-4 before the inning ended.
 
In the ninth, Dustin Duhon punched a one-out single up the middle and after Endsley was lifted for reliever Zach Carter, Ramirez followed with a single through the left side to put runners at first and second with one out. Gallier, who stepped up to the plate with two hits on the day, hit a hard grounder towards the middle but the HBU second baseman Jack Fitzgerald played it perfectly to turn a double play and end the game.
 
In addition to Ramirez and Gallier's multi-hit games, Podorsky ended the day 2-for-5 with a run scored while Rogers finished 2-for-4.
 
King (3-4) took the loss on the mound for McNeese after giving up five runs (four earned) on eight hits in four innings of work. Grant Anderson (three innings) and Trent Fontenot (two innings) threw the final five frames and held HBU to just two hits while striking out three.
 
Fitzgerald led HBU's 10-hit attack with a 3-for-3 outing with a RBI and two runs scored.
 
McNeese, who has wins this season over conference champion teams LSU, Missouri State, and Creighton, will find out Monday morning if its season will continue.