LAKE CHARLES – New Orleans starting pitcher Brandon Mitchell threw a complete game while holding McNeese to just four hits as the Privateers posted a 9-2 Southland Conference baseball win over the Cowboys on Saturday and evening the series at one game apiece.
 
The rubber-match will be played on Sunday beginning at 1.
 
Mitchell threw 127 pitches in improving his record to 7-3 on the season. McNeese starter Burrell Jones (3-1) suffered his first loss on the year after throwing five innings and giving up six runs, although only two were earned.
 
Cowboys third baseman Taylor Darden had two of McNeese's four hits, getting a single in the bottom of the third inning for the team's first hit of the game, then a solo home run to lead-off the fifth inning, his third homer of the season.
 
UNO left fielder Tristan Moore led a 13-hit attack with a 3-for-5 night with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. Right fielder Mitchell Sanford added a three-run home run that gave the Privateers a 6-1 lead after the top of the fifth inning. UNO scored four runs in that frame, all unearned, then added another unearned run in the eighth to go up 7-2. The Privateers scored a couple more in the ninth to extend the lead.
 
Each team committed three errors in the game as five of UNO's nine runs were unearned.
 
The loss dropped the Cowboys' record to 25-13 overall and 7-7 in conference play while UNO improved to 22-17 and 7-7.