LAKE CHARLES – Sergio Lopez hasn't touched the mound in competition in 29 days.
 
On Saturday while making his first start of the season, the senior looked like the staff ace.
 
 Working on a pitch count, Lopez faced just four batters over the minimum and silenced the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi bats in the process to set the tone for a 3-1 McNeese win.
 
The victory notched the eighth weekend series win for the Cowboys as they improve to 29-7 overall and 16-5 in Southland Conference play and moved into a tie for first place in the league standings with Southeastern after the Lions lost to UTRGV on Saturday.
 
McNeese will visit the second place Vaqueros next weekend in the biggest league matchup of the season.
 
On Saturday, it was Lopez who came up big for the Cowboys.
 
After giving up a single to start the game, Lopez did not allow another hit and only one base runner until the fourth inning. He came out of the game with one out in the top of the fifth and the Cowboys leading 2-0 after reaching his pitch count limit. In addition to no allowing a run, he gave up only three hits, walked two and struck out five as he improved his record to 5-1 on the season.
 
Jake Blackwell was just as impressive in 4.2 innings of relief work to earn his third save on the year. Blackwell allowed one run on two hits, struck out two and did not walk a batter. He retired 10 straight to end the game.
 
McNeese put 12 hits on the board, three of those off the bat of Easton Dowell who finished 3-for-3 with a double and RBI. Conner Westenburg added a 2-for-4 game with an RBI and Connor Schneider followed up his 4-for-4 game on Friday with a 2-for-4 outing in the series finale with a double and two runs scored.
 
McNeese got on the board first in the bottom of the second when Schneider doubled and later scored on a Westenburg single up the middle.
 
Schneider led off the fourth with a single up the middle and scored on a one-out single by Matt Stancliff, who replaced starting second baseman Bryce Fontenot in the third inning.
 
Leading 2-1 seventh, Larry Edwards Jr. and Dowell hit back-to-back one out doubles, both down the third base line and Edwards Jr. scoring on Dowell's to make it a 3-1 game.
 
The Islanders, who hit a season-high five home runs in Friday's win, got a sixth inning solo shot from Jarrett Flaggert but only twice in the game had a runner in scoring position, one in the fourth inning when with two outs and a runner on third, Dowell robbed the Islanders of a run-scoring single with an incredible leaping grab at short stop to keep the visitors off the board.
 
McNeese, now 21-2 at home, will be back at The Jeaux on Tuesday night when it hosts Louisiana Christian at 6 p.m.