2023 All-SLC Baseball Team

LAKE CHARLES – McNeese starting pitcher Grant Rogers has been named the 2023 Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive season, and has earned a spot on the All-SLC first team, the league office released on Monday, one day prior to the start of the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at Joe Miller Ballpark.
 
In addition, second baseman Brad Burckel was named to the second team while Rogers and LF Cooper Hext earned a spot on the All-Defensive Team.
 
Rogers, who will be making his 15^th start of the season on Tuesday night's conference tourney opener against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, posted an 11-1 record on the season and a 2.00 ERA, both league highs. He also led the conference with a 4.61 strikeout-to-walk ratio, a 0.95 WHIP and with 1.71 walks per nine innings.
 
He became the first player in school history to win 10 games without a loss and tied a school single-season record with 11 victories, which is also the third-most in conference history.
 
The Neches, Texas native is the seventh Cowboy selection to be named pitcher of the year in school history and the first to earn the award multiple times. He's also just the fourth player in conference history to garner the award in back-to-back seasons.
 
Burckel picked up second team all-conference honors after hitting .287 on the year with 33 RBIs and tying for the team lead with eight home runs.
 
He ranked fourth in the conference with 20 stolen bases and second in the league with 44 walks. He produced 14 multiple-hit and seven multi-RBI games on the year, and earlier in the season, set a new school record with a 25-game hitting streak.
 
Hext started in 53 games on the season in left field and produced a .988 fielding percentage in 86 chances. He committed just one error and had five assists. Offensively he hit .300 on the season with eight homers, 41 RBIs, and ranked second in the league and 10^th in the NCAA with six triples.
 
COWBOYS TANGLE WITH ISLANDERS IN WIN-OR-GO-HOME GAME
McNeese will be making its 21^st appearance in the conference postseason tournament when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 6 p.m. at Joe Miller Ballpark in a single-elimination game.
 
The Cowboys (33-21, 12-12) enter as the No. 6 seed while AMCC (24-29, 12-12) is the No. 7 seed. The winner will advance to the six-team, double-elimination bracket that starts on Wednesday, and will play No. 1 Nicholls at 6 p.m.
 
McNeese defeated the Islanders two-games-to-one earlier in the season (8-3, 3-5, 4-3) in Lake Charles.
 
TOURNAMENT NOTES
• The Cowboys have recorded an overall tourney record of 30-30.
• McNeese has posted a 4-2 record in tournament championship games, the most titles among current conference opponents and tied for the second-most in league history (Sam Houston 6, Texas State 4).
• McNeese's four titles have come in 1993, 2003, 2019, 2021 and finished as the runner-up twice in 1995 and 2022.
• Has played in the last three tournament title games, winning in 2019 and 2021; no tourney in 2020 due to Covid).
• The Cowboys have recorded 589 all-time SLC wins, a conference record.
• The Cowboys are 9-3 in 1-run games on the year, including 4-3 in SLC play.
• 1-1 in extra-inning games and 3-0 in run-ruled contests.
• McNeese is 24-2 when leading after 6 innings; 22-2 with lead after 7; 23-1 when leading after 8.
• 24-4 when scoring 7 or more runs.
• 23-0 record when holding opponents to 2 runs or fewer; 28-5 at 5 runs or fewer.
• McNeese has held opponents to 5 hits or less in 14 games this season, including a combined no-hitter against Prairie View on March 11.
• McNeese's 6 shutouts on the season are ranked No. 4 in the NCAA (LSU leads with 8).
• The 6 shutouts also ranks as the third-most in a season for McNeese (record is 9 in 1981).
• The Cowboys' pitching staff has struck out 10 or more batters 12 times this year, most recently vs. Miami (OH) University in a 13-5 win.
• Ranked No. 1 in SLC, 10th NCAA with 120 stolen bases.
• Three players with 20 or more steals (Payton Harden 23, Josh Leslie 20, Brad Burckel 20) and two with 10 or more (Duhon 18, Hext 13).
 
JUSTIN HILL MOVING UP SLC CAREER WINS LADDER; SEARCHING FOR WIN NO. 300
• McNeese head coach Justin Hill, already McNeese's all-time winningest coach, has recorded 299 career wins, all at McNeese, and is currently 10th all-time in the Southland Conference record book.
• He'll be only the 10th coach in SLC history to reach the 300-win milestone.
• Hill's .557 win-loss percentage (299-238) ranks as the 19th-best all-time in league history.
• In 10 years as head coach and in nine full seasons (2020 was canceled due to Covid with the Cowboys posting a 10-7 record), Hill's teams have won 30 games or more eight times, including in each of the last four seasons.
 
McNEESE vs. A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI
• McNeese and A&M-Corpus Christi have played every season but one since 2007, with that one year being 2016... the teams didn't play in 2020 either due to the cancellation of the season because of the Covid pandemic.
• The Cowboys hold a 24-18 lead in the all-time series including an 13-6 mark at home.
• Cowboys are winners of 9 out of the last 11 against A&M-Corpus Christi including 2 out of 3 earlier this year in Lake Charles April 7-8.
• In the first game, an 8-3 McNeese win, Grant Rogers threw a complete game for the victory, allowing 3 runs and 7 hits, struck out six and walked none.
• McNeese is 2-0 against the Islanders in tournament play with the last meeting being a 6-2 victory in the 2019 quarterfinals.