SAN ANTONIO – Winners of eight of its last 10 games and three straight Southland Conference series, McNeese Baseball returns to league play this weekend when it takes on Incarnate Word in a three-game series.
 
The series will start on Friday at 2:00 start followed by a 2 p.m. first pitch on Saturday and 1 o'clock on Sunday. Sunday's game will broadcast on ESPN Plus. Friday's game was moved up from 6:30 due to a threat of rain in the forecast Friday night.
 
The Cowboys (27-13, 8-7 SLC) took two out of three games against New Orleans last weekend and defeated LSU-Alexandria in mid-week action while UIW (22-19, 9-6) has dropped three straight games, including a 9-8 loss to UTRGV on Tuesday. The Cardinals dropped two out of three to Northwestern State last weekend.
 
UIW currently sits in second place in the conference standings, one game ahead of the Cowboys.
 
PITCHING ROTATION:
• The Cowboys will throw RHP Grant Rogers in Friday's opener.
• Rogers is 9-0 on the season and is just the second player in school history to start the season 9-0.
• The starters for Saturday and Sunday are TBD.
• Rogers is No. 1 in the SLC and 8^th in NCAA with a 1.77 ERA and leads the league with 68 strikeouts.
• Rogers is No. 1 in SLC and 3^rd in NCAA with three complete games.
 
BATTING:
• The Cowboys are hitting .280 as a team for the season and .289 in SLC games.
• SS Josh Leslie leads the team with a .321 average followed by LF Cooper Hext at .291, DH Tré Obregon III at .284 and 3B Taylor Darden with a .280 average.
• 1B Chase Keeton is hitting .319 in SLC games only while CF Payton Harden is at .305, RF Braden Duhon .3-4, Leslie .3-2 and Hext .300.
• McNeese leads the conference with 94 stolen bases, sacrifice hits (25) and sacrifice bunts (22).
• Leslie leads the SLC and is ranked 6^th in the NCAA with 19 doubles… he's also the toughest to strike out in the league and 13^th nationally.
• 2B Brad Burckel tops the conference and is 16^th in NCAA with 39 walks.
• Burckel, Harden and Leslie are all tied for 3^rd in the league with 17 stolen bases.
• Harden, who is tied with Reid Bourque for most stolen bases in a career at 79.