LAKE CHARLES – Winners of four of its last five games, McNeese Baseball will be back home this weekend when it hosts the George Washington Colonials in a three-game series beginning Friday night at 6 p.m. at Joe Miller Ballpark.
 
Saturday's game will carry a 2 p.m. start with Sunday's finale starting at 11 a.m.
 
McNeese (5-4) is coming off a couple of mid-week wins – 5-4 over Louisiana-Lafayette on Tuesday and 10-3 against Southern on Wednesday.
 
GW is 2-6 on the season and dropped a 10-8 decision to James Madison on Tuesday in its last outing.
 
McNeese Pitching Rotation:
• Friday – RHP Grant Rogers (2-0, 1.38 ERA, 13.0 IP, 19 SO, 4 BB)
• Saturday – RHP Derrick Cherry (0-0, 7.00 ERA, 9.0 IP, 6 SO, 6 BB)
• Sunday – TBA
 
GW Pitching Rotation:
• Friday – RHP Logan Koester (0-0, 6.10 ERA, 10.1 IP, 5 SO, 4 BB)
• Saturday – TBA
• Sunday – RHP Christopher Kahler (1-1, 1.88 ERA, 14.1 IP, 14 SO, 3 BB)
 
The Series:
• This will be the first-ever meeting between the Cowboys and Colonials.
• McNeese has played just one other team from the A-10, that being Rhode Island where the series is tied 2-2.
 
Notes on the Cowboys:
• 2B Brad Burckel leads the team in batting with a .333 average followed by CF Payton Harden at .324 and 3B Taylor Darden .308.
• Cooper Hext is ranked 2^nd in the SLC with three home runs, No. 2 with a .730 slugging percentage, No. 1 with 27 total bases, and first in the SLC and 7^th in NCAA with two triples.
• Burckel is second in the SLC and 57^th nationally with four doubles on the year.
• Harden is 4^th in SLC and 37^th in NCAA with five stolen bases.
• Grant Rogers is No. 3 in SLC and 8^th in NCAA with 19 batters struck out.
• Rogers is 4^th in SLC with 13.2 Ks per 9 innings.
• Rogers is 2^nd in SLC and 6^th in NCAA with two victories.
• As a team, the Cowboys are No. 1 in the SLC in slugging (.463) and doubles per game (2.6), and are 2^nd in SLC and 14^th in NCAA with 23 total doubles.
• McNeese is No. 2 in SLC in home runs (10), sacrifice bunts (5), sacrifice flies (7), triples (5), and triples per game (0.6).
• McNeese is 3-0 on the season when leading after six innings, 4-0 when leading after 7 and 5-0 when leading after 8.
• Both Harden and Hext currently have a 6-game hitting streak while Harden has reached safely in all nine games this season.
 
About George Washington:
• The Colonials are a member of the Atlantic-10 Conference and posted a 22-30 record in 2022 including a 10-14 mark in league play.
• Picked to finish 10^th in the league's preseason poll.
• Will enter the weekend hitting .280 as a team and is second in the league with 13 home runs hit.
• OF Sam Gates and 1B Michael Kohn lead the team with each hitting .393 on the season.
• Kohn is the reigning A-10 Player of the Week after his hit .538 in four games last week.
• Sunday's starter, Christopher Kahler, threw a complete game in getting the win over Fairfield last Saturday, giving up two runs on six hits with eight Ks and a walk.