NATCHITOCHES – McNeese will close out the regular season portion of its schedule this weekend when it visits. Northwestern State for a three-game Southland Conference series beginning on Thursday.
 
The Cowboys (31-13, 18-9 SLC) are currently in third place in the league standings, one game ahead of NSU (31-18, 17-10) who is in a three-way tie for fourth place with Lamar and HCU. McNeese is a game behind Southeastern Louisiana for second place and 2 ½ games behind league leader UTRGV.
 
The top two teams in the final standings will host a four-team, opening round Southland Conference Tournament bracket starting next Thursday. UTRGV has already clinched a host spot. McNeese still has a chance to host depending on what it does at NSU and what Southeastern does at Nicholls.
 
Series Information
• Location: Brown-Stroud Field | Natchitoches, La.
• History: McNeese leads 50-25
 
Records
• McNeese 31-13 (18-9, 3^rd)
• Northwestern State 31-18 (17-10, T4th)
 
Game Times
• Thursday – 6:30 p.m.; Friday – 6:30 p.m.; Saturday – 2 p.m.
 
Tune In
• ESPN+ and Live Stats for all three games
Thursday: ESPN+   Live Stats
Friday: ESPN+   Live Stats
Saturday: ESPN+   Live Stats

Gameday Notebook
• McNeese will close out its regular season this weekend with a three-game Southland Conference series at Northwestern State.
• The Cowboys are 18-9 in league play and in third place, one game ahead of NSU (17-10) who is tied with Lamar and HCU in the standings.
• McNeese is two games behind Southeastern for 2nd place and 2.5 behind UTRGV for first and is coming off a 1-2 series loss at home to SFA last weekend, the team's first conference home series loss of the season.
• NSU swept a road series at Pepperdine last weekend and will carry a 5-game winning streak into the series.
• SFA dropped its series against Northwestern State last weekend, 2-1 and defeated Grambling, 20-8 in a mid-week game in its last outing.
• McNeese leads the all-time series against the Demons by a 126-111-2 margin.
• The Cowboys are 9-6 away from home this season and 7-5 in road league games.
• Saturday SP Sergio Lopez will be making his fourth start in as many weeks... in those starts he's 2-0 with a 1.76 ERA in 15.1 innings pitched and has struck out 14 batters in the process.
• Shortstop Easton Dowell will carry a .386 batting average into the series and is looking to become the first Cowboy since the 2001 season to hit .400 on the year and only the 6th all-time.
• Center fielder Conner Westenburg set a new school single season and career record with his lead-off, 1st inning home run at UTRGV last Friday... it was his 3rd 1st inning lead-off homer of the season and the 4th in his career, both school records.
• Westenburg's 9 triples on the season is 2nd-most in school history and three off the season record of 12 while his career triples total of 12 is ranked tied as the 4th-most all-time in school history.
• Westenburg has a current streak of 34 straight games when reaching base.
• Left fielder Larry Edwards Jr. will carry a team-best 12-game hitting streak into the series.
• Head coach Justin Hill, in his 12th season, has compiled 364 career wins, the most in McNeese history and ranking 7th all-time in Southland Conference history and second-most among current league coaches (Scott Malone, AMCC with 437 wins).
• Hill was a volunteer assistant for the Demons from 2003-05 and was on staff for the 2005 SLC championship team.
• Assistant coach Miles Durham played for the Demons from 2004-06 and was drafted by the Pittsburg Pirates in the 22nd round of the 2006 MLB Draft.