NATCHITOCHES – McNeese rallied from an early 5-0 deficit with seven unanswered runs and held off Northwestern State in the ninth inning for a 7-6 win to even up the Southland Conference series on Friday night.
 
The win improved McNeese's record to 32-14 overall and 19-10 in league play while the Demons fell to 32-19 and 18-11. The Cowboys are 1 ½ games behind Southeastern, who were rained out on Friday against Nicholls, and will need to win on Saturday and hope for two SLU losses to Nicholls to capture the No. 2 seed and a host spot in next week's Southland Conference Tournament opening round. Saturday's game will carry a 2 p.m. first pitch and can be seen on ESPN+.
 
Things looked bleak for the Cowboys early on as they fell behind 5-0 after two innings. But McNeese's four pitchers out of the bullpen came up huge, allowing only one run and four hits in six innings, capped off by Eric Nachtsheim's longest outing of the season by throwing the final three innings to get the win and improve to 2-0 on the year.
 
McNeese scattered nine hits throughout the lineup with Davis Meche, Larry Edwards Jr. and Seth Fontenot each collecting two.
 
Six of the Cowboys' seven runs were unearned as they took advantage of three Demon errors, the last one coming in the top of the ninth when an attempt at a force out at home plate with the bases loaded was wildly thrown by the NSU third baseman, allowing two McNeese runs to score and breaking a 5-5 tie.
 
Quoting Coach Justin Hill:
"We've played that game quite a few times this year with the bullpen and have done a really good job. That's a big win to be able to come back. Let's be real, we've been struggling a little bit. But for our guys to fight back and win the game tells you a lot about their character. I'm really proud of those guys. That's probably as good a win we've had all year.
 
Pitchers of Record:
W – Eric Nachtsheim, McN (2-0) | 3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO
L – Caden Fiveash, NSU (1-1) | 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
 
At the Plate:
Davis Meche 2-5, R
Larry Edwards Jr. 2-4, RBI, R
Seth Fontenot 2-4, 2 RBI, 2B

Scoring Summary:
• Bottom 1 – Rocco Gump's RBI sacrifice fly scored Reese Lipoma and Braden Benton followed with a 2-run home run. NSU 3-0.
• Bottom 2 – Hudson Brignac RBI single up the middle to score Colin Rains. Gump's RBI ground out to 1B scored Sebastian Huerta. NSU 5-0. 
• Top 4 – Marcus Heusohn drew a lead-off walk and Larry Edwards Jr. followed by getting hit by a pitch. Easton Dowell's hot shot to 3B forced an out at third but a throwing error to 1B allowed Heusohn to score. Bryce Jones walked and Seth Fontenot hit a 2-run double to score Dowell and Jones. NSU 5-3.
• Top 6 – Matt Stancliff walked and later scored on a 2-out throwing error by the NSU third baseman to cut the NSU lead to one. NSU 5-4.
• Top 7 – Mack Brousseau hit a 1-out triple to right-center field then scored on a 2-out single up the middle by Edwards Jr. to tie the game, 5-5.
• Top 9 – McNeese loads the bases with no outs and a grounder to 3B by Larry Edwards Jr. scores two runs after the throw at the plate to get the force out is wildly thrown. McNeese 7-5.

Missed Opportunities:
• Top 3 – Seth Fontenot and Davis Meche hit back-to-back 1-out singles and runners would move to 2^nd and 3^rd with two outs before a strikeout ended the inning leaving the runners stranded.
• Top 7 – After tying the game 5-5 with two outs on a Larry Edwards Jr. RBI single, Edwards Jr. stole 2^nd and would be left stranded after a fly out to center field ended the inning.
• Top 8 – Matt Stancliff attempted to turn a lead-off double into a triple but was thrown out at third base. McNeese went down in order after that.