NATCHITOCHES – McNeese will complete its Southland Conference baseball slate this weekend when it visits Northwestern State and looking to clinch a spot in the May 23-27 postseason tournament.
 
The series will begin on Friday at 6:30 and will continue on Saturday at 2 and Sunday at 1. All three games will broadcast on ESPN Plus.
 
The Cowboys (31-16, 11-10 SLC) are currently in fifth place in a very jumbled conference standings where just four games separate second place from eighth. Northwestern State (25-21, 10-8) is tied for third but only two games behind first place Nicholls.
 
McNeese is coming off a mid-week win over Nicholls and won last week's conference series against Lamar while Northwestern State dropped a mid-week game at LSU after losing a series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Cowboy ace pitcher Grant Rogers (10-0, 2.00 ERA) will get the start once again on Friday to attempt to get McNeese off started in the right direction. Rogers, who was just recently named as the 18^th-best pitcher in the nation by D1Baseball, is one of just four pitchers in the NCAA with 10 wins.
 
Saturday and Sunday's starting pitchers are to be determined but Bryson Hudgens will get a start on one of those days. Hudgens is coming off Tommy John Surgery and saw game action for the first time in 409 days two weeks ago at Incarnate Word where he threw one inning. Last week versus Lamar he threw three perfect innings before hitting his pitch count and being relieved.
 
Offensively, the Cowboys have three players hitting above the .300 mark with shortstop Josh Leslie topping the chart at .315 to go along with a team-high 49 RBIs and tied for the lead with seven home runs.
 
Second baseman Brad Burckel is now hitting .301 along with designated hitter Tré Obregon III. Burckel was tabbed as the 29^th-ranked second baseman in the nation by D1Baseball and will enter the series riding an 8-game hitting streak (.413, 12-29 during the streak).
 
Northwestern State's rotation is expected to be LHP Cal Carver (5-3, 4.93) on Friday followed by RHP Alex Makarewich (5-4, 5.11) and RHP Drayton Brown (4-6, 6.06).
 
The Demons are led at the plate by third baseman Michael Dattalo who also leads the conference with a .400 batting average.
 
NSU has won the last three series against McNeese and is 7-3 in the last 10 outings.