BATON ROUGE – Something had to give on Tuesday night when McNeese carried the nation's longest current winning streak into nationally-ranked LSU's Alex Box Stadium, a place where the Tigers possess the second-longest home win streak.
 
The host Tigers, ranked No. 8 and 9 in the national polls, kept their streak alive after beating McNeese, 10-3, to extend their home streak to 18 games while snapping the Cowboys' 12-game overall winning run.
 
LSU (32-6) led 4-0 after the first two innings, three coming in the first and highlighted by a two-run home run by first baseman Jared Jones.
 
That came after McNeese (27-6) began the game with a scoring threat by putting runners on first and second after back-to-back one-out singles by second baseman Matt Stancliff and designated hitter Mack Brousseau. But the two would be left stranded, two of nine base runners left by the Cowboys on the night, four of those in scoring position.
 
The Cowboys got on the board with two runs in the fourth behind a two-run home run by Larry Edwards Jr., his second on the year, to close the gap to 4-2.
 
Three straight hits in the frame led to the big inning. First baseman Marcus Heusohn got things going with a one-out double. That was followed by Edwards Jr.'s homer over the right field wall. Davis Meche followed with a single and Easton Dowell walked to keep the rally alive. But a line out to right field and strikeout ended another McNeese scoring opportunity.
 
The Tigers came back and scored four runs in the bottom of the inning, all with two outs, to grow the lead to 8-2.
 
McNeese got a run back in the top of the fifth when Brousseau drove in Conner Westenburg on a sacrifice fly to center field. The Cowboys ended up loading the bases with one out, but back-to-back strike outs left the runners stranded, stalling a possible rally inning.
 
LSU added a run in the bottom of the fifth and another in the eighth to extend the lead.
 
The Tigers out-hit the Cowboys 13-7 on the night, led by Jones' three hits. Heusohn and Stancliff each recorded two hits to lead McNeese at the plate.
 
Starting pitcher Parker Morgan (1-1) took the loss. One of nine Cowboy pitchers to take the mound, Morgan gave up three runs in the first on four hits while recording an out.
 
LSU starter William Schmidt (6-0) picked up the win after 3.1 innings of work.
 
McNeese will return to Southland Conference play this Thursday-Saturday when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.