LAKE CHARLES – McNeese starting pitcher Grant Rogers became the nation's first eight-game winner on Friday when he threw his second complete game of the season in leading the Cowboys to an 8-3 Southland Conference win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
In game two, the Islanders scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to break a 2-2 tie then held off a Cowboys rally to pull out a 5-3 win.
 
The rubber match will start at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The game is scheduled to broadcast on ESPN+ pending the weather.
 
McNeese is 19-11 overall and 3-5 in league play after the split while AMCC went to 14-18 and 2-3.
 
Game 1:
Rogers (8-0) won in his eighth start of the season while throwing a season-high 124 pitches. He allowed seven hits and three runs, walked zero and struck out six.
 
At the plate, McNeese pounded out 10 hits, two of those coming from Payton Harden and Josh Leslie. Leslie drove in two runs with an eighth-inning triple, increasing his team and league lead to 41 on the season.
 
McNeese jumped on Islanders starting pitcher Matthew Watson with four runs in the first inning behind a two-run double from Cooper Hext, RBI grounder by Tré Obregon III, and an RBI double by Andruw Gonzales.
 
The Cowboys added a run in the third off a double from Braden Duhon to put McNeese up 5-0.
 
Corpus added a run in the fifth and two in the sixth to cut the lead to 5-3, but McNeese got a run back in the sixth and then Leslie's two-run triple in the eighth extended the lead.
 
Watson (2-3) took the loss on the mound for the Islanders after he allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits in 5.2 innings.
 
Game 2:
The two starting pitchers – McNeese's Ty Abraham and AMCC's Evans Hendricks pitched six innings of a duel. Abraham allowed one run and three hits with eight strikeouts through six innings while Hendricks held the Cowboys scoreless and to just one hit while fanning eight through six as well.
 
McNeese took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh on a two-run single by Duhon. The Islanders tied it with a run in the eighth then in the ninth, Corpus scored three runs off of three doubles to go up 5-2.
 
In the bottom of the ninth the Cowboys had the first two batters reach base but was only able to score one run.
 
Duhon had two of the Cowboys' seven hits in the game while five other batters scattered the remaining hits.
 
Derrick Cherry (3-2) took the loss out of the bullpen after he allowed four runs on four hits in 2.2 innings. For the Islanders, Kyle Dickey (1-0) picked up the win while Austin Dean recorded his third save on the season.
 
Worth Noting:
• With 3 at-bats in the first game, Peyton Harden became the McNeese career record holder with 873, surpassing the previous record of 870 held by Andrew Guillotte (2012-2015).