Box Score HAMMOND – Will Dion continued to prove his worthiness of being named the Southland Conference's Pitcher of the Year when on Wednesday he held the No. 2 seeded UNO Privateers hitless through five innings while McNeese's offense got out to a fast start to pace the Cowboys to a 12-0, run-ruled win in eight innings in the opening round of the 2021 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament.
 
Three home runs, two by Clayton Rasbeary, four other extra base-hits and a total 13 knocks with at least one by every player in the lineup put the Cowboys one step closer to defending their tournament championship from 2019.
 
Dion (9-4) picked up the win after allowing just one hit in seven innings, walked two and struck out seven. His seven batters fanned increased his season total to 106, ranking as the fourth-most in a single-season in school history.
 
McNeese, the No. 7 seed, will play No. 3 Southeastern Louisiana at 7 p.m. on Thursday in a winner's bracket game. The Lions defeated Northwestern State 2-1 late Wednesday.
 
The Cowboys (29-28) wasted little time in putting numbers on the board when Payton Harden started off the game with a single off the game's first pitch. Rasbeary walked and Nate Fisbeck belted a two-run triple to put the Cowboys up 2-0 with no outs on the board. Fisbeck then scored on a sacrifice fly by Tré Obregon to make it a 3-0 advantage.
 
After going up 5-0 with two runs in the fourth inning and Dion dealing on the mound, the first of Rasbeary's homers of the game, a two-run blast, helped McNeese place three runs in the sixth and increase its lead to 8-0.
 
A Kade Morris RBI double in the seventh made it a 9-0 lead then in the top of the eighth, Rasbeary led off with a solo home run then Brett Whelton hit a long ball down the left field line that banged off the foul pole for a two-run homer to put the Cowboys up 12-0.
 
Isaac Duplechain pitched the bottom of the eighth inning and kept the Privateers off the board to secure the run-rule win.
 
Harden led in the hitting department with a 3 for 5 game with two RBI and two runs scored. Rasbeary went 2 for 4 with three RBI and three runs and Morris added a 2 for 3 game with a run scored and RBI.
 
UNO's Chris Turpin (9-3) took the loss after allowing five runs on seven hits in four innings of action.