LAKE CHARLES - McNeese baseball (2-1) returns to action Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. as it hosts Oakland (1-3) for a three-game series at Joe Miller Ballpark for the first meeting in program history. The schedule was altered due to inclement weather with Friday's game being moved up three hours to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday are scheduled to be played at 1 p.m. both days.

Friday and Sunday's matchups are set to be streamed on ESPN+ and all the action can be followed through live stats all weekend.

Left-handed pitchers Alexis Gravel (senior) and Cooper Golden (junior) are slated to start for the Cowboys Friday and Saturday respectively. The Golden Grizzlies will toss right-handed pitcher Hunter Pidek Friday and left-handed Grant Garman on Saturday.

McNeese is coming off a 2-1 opening weekend series victory against Wichita State, defeating them in a series for the first time in program history. 

 Series Preview 
• McNeese and Oakland will meet for the first time in program history. 
• Coach Hill and Coach Nelson are meeting for the first time at the helm with the latter being named interim head coach in his fifth season with the program. 

McNeese Notes 
•McNeese claimed an opening series victory over Wichita State 2-1, marking the first time they've defeated the Shockers in a series in program history. 
• The Cowboys' game against top-ranked Texas A&M was canceled due to inclement weather. 
• McNeese is ranked fifth in the nation with three triples, tied with conference oppo­nent UIW. Jacksonville State leads the nation with seven. 
• The Cowboys return 18 members from the 2024 roster and added 23 over the offsea­son headed into 2025. 
• Coach Hill guided the Pokes to a 32-27 record on the 2024 season to mark his ninth season of earning 30+ wins in a season. 
• Conner Westenburg was named to the Southland Preseason All-Conference First Team. 
• Simon Larranaga earned recognition on the SLC Preseason All-Conference Second Team. 
• The Cowboys officially began practice on Friday, January 24 with an intrasquad to get things started. 
• On February 1, the Cowboy Alumni Game was hosted, seeing multiple players return with alumni Jace Peterson, Grant Rogers, Cayne Uekert, Payton Harden, Ty Abraham, Cooper Hext, Matt Fontenot, and numerous others making an appearance. 
• Peyton McLemore was added to the coaching staff as an assistant coach/pitching coordinator while Peyton LeJeune also joined as a Student Assistant Coach. 

Scouting the Opponent 
• Oakland went 1-3 during opening weekend against Jacksonville State. The teams played a doubleheader on Friday with one game on Saturday and Sunday. 
• Matthew McGann leads the team in batting with at least 10 at-bats at .500 through three games played for the grad student. He has five hits with one double and two RBIs. 
• Saturday's starter Grant Garman picked up the lone win for the Golden Grizzles during the season opener. He also owns the teams lowest ERA over 3.0+ innings of work at 1.80.

Last Time Out 
• McNeese defeated Wichita State 2-1 over the weekend for the first series victory over the Shockers in program history. 
• Nine pitchers made their debuts for McNeese over the weekend. 
• Sergio Lopez and Caleb Strmiska picked up the victories over the weekend for the Pokes. 
• Alexis Gravel recorded a 0.00 ERA through four innings of work when making the start for the opener Friday. 
• Sergio Lopez recorded the next lowest ERA for pitchers throwing over 4.0 innings at 1.80 over five innings of action. 
• Three Cowboys earned an average over .400 with at least six at-bats with Davis Meche (.500) leading the way followed by Easton Dowell (.455) and Conner Westenburg (.429). 
• The Cowboys were slated to play Texas A&M Tuesday which was canceled due to inclement weather.