LAKE CHARLES – Grant Rogers, the reigning Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year, held true to that honor on Friday night when he threw six shutout innings and struck out eight batters to pace the McNeese Cowboys to a 1-0 win over Creighton in the baseball season opener.
 
Rogers (1-0) tossed 79 total pitches and faced 20 batters, two over the minimum, allowed only two hits and walked one. He also got some stellar defense from his teammates. Burrell Jones and Ty Abraham closed out the final three innings by striking out four and giving up only two hits.
 
Abraham, making just his second bullpen appearance as a Cowboy, earned his first-career save by throwing the final two frames of two-hit ball with three strikeouts, including the final two batters in the top of the ninth in a quick game that lasted just 1:51 and played in front of 1,015 fans despite a cold, windy night.
 
Creighton (0-1) had a nice outing from starter Ryan Windham who allowed just one unearned run and five hits.
 
The lone run of the game came in the bottom of the first inning when Josh Leslie and Brad Burckel had back-to-back one-out singles then after a Tré Obregon III fielder's choice put runners at the corners with two out in the inning, Leslie scored when Bluejay first baseman Colby Canales couldn't field a grounder off the bat of Braden Duhon.
 
Creighton threatened in the top of the second when Ben Gbur led off getting hit by a pitch but was caught stealing for the first out. Canales followed with a double that he tried to leg into a triple but a great field and relay by Payton Harden to Burckel and then to Taylor Darden put an end to the threat.
 
Andruw Gonzales threw out his second Creighton player attempting to steal in the third inning to put a stall into any possible threat.
 
Rogers continued to cruise, retiring nine straight batters from the end of the third through two outs in the sixth with the only walk thrown breaking the streak.
 
Jones started the seventh on the mound and threw a perfect inning with a strikeout then Abraham closed the door but not before getting out of an eighth inning jam when Creighton put runners on first and second following a couple of singles. But a grounder to Abraham and his underhand toss to Hunter at first ended the inning.
 
Offensively the Cowboys scattered five hits with Obregon popping a double to lead off the bottom of the fourth. But he would be thrown out at third base trying to extend it to a triple.
 
Harden finished the night 1 for 4 and picked up his 253^rd career hit and moving him two hits away from breaking the school record of 254 held by Joe Provenzano. Also, Burckel extended his hitting streak to 22 consecutive games, three short of breaking the record of 24 held by Joe Hulett.
 
And with Friday's win, Justin Hill improves to 8-2 in season opening games as head coach.
 
The series will continue on Saturday with the first pitch slated for 2 p.m.