BEAUMONT, TEXAS – McNeese baseball (8-8, 3-3) hits the road as it travels west to Beaumont to take on the Lamar Cardinals (10-7, 4-2) in a Battle of the Border weekend series to continue league play. First pitch is for Friday is scheduled for 7 p.m. and will be streamed lived on ESPN+.
 
 The Cowboys are coming off a weekend series loss in conference play to the Houston Christian Huskies as they dropped game 1 and game 3. McNeese scored 11 runs on 31 hits across the weekend with six of the hits coming from doubles and three being home runs. Seth Fontenot and Viggo Lopez both hit their first home runs of the season in game 3 over the weekend.
 
McNeese starting pitcher, Eric Nachtsheim, was named Southland Conference pitcher of the week yesterday after his stellar performance on the mound last Friday night for the Cowboys tossing his first career complete game and striking out a career high 16 batters on the night as he moved to 3-0 on the season with the win. He was also named to Baseball America's National Team of the week earlier this week as well as the College Baseball Foundation National Pitcher of the Year Watch List.
 
Lamar is coming off a 6-0 shutout victory over Louisiana Tech in a midweek match up where their pitching staff only gave up one hit on the night in the bottom of the fourth after dropping the series at Stephen F. Austin one game to two over the weekend.
 
Series Information: vs Lamar

• Location: Vincent Back Stadium | Beaumont, Texas 
• Last 5 Meetings: 3-2
• Last Meeting: March 16,2025 | McNeese, 9-4 at home

Records:

• McNeese (8-8, 3-3)
• Lamar (10-7, 4-2)

Gameday Notebook:

• Cowboys dropped two out of three games over the weekend to Houston Christian
• Eric Nachtsheim threw a complete game in game two of the series against HCU, striking out a career high 16 batters.
• Nachtsheim was named Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week and was named to Baseball America's National Team of the Week
• Nachtsheim leads the Southland in both total batters struck out and strikeouts per nine innings while ranking 6^thand 12^th respectively in the NCAA
• Coming into the game with a 5-1 road record
• Hayden Stringfellow went a perfect 4-for-4 at the plate in game two against the Huskies with three RBI's
• McNeese scored 11 runs off 31 hits on the weekend against HCU
• Of the 31 hits on the weekend, the Cowboys hit 6 doubles and 3 home runs
• The Cowboys three home runs came from Matt Stancliff (3^rd on the season), Seth Fontenot (1^st on the season, and Viggo Lopez (1^st on the season).
• Eric Nachtsheim picked up his third win on the season to remain perfect at 3-0 overall
• Multiple players will enter the game on Wednesday with a two-game hitting streak
• Hayden Stringfellow has a reached base streak of 11 and a reached safely streak of 11.
• Matt Stancliff and Danny Barbero lead the team in home runs with three each.
• Matt Stancliff leads the team in stolen bases with 12 on the season
• Nachtsheim leads the pitching staff in strikeouts on the season with 39 in his five appearances.
• Cowboy pitching staff has recorded 180 strikeouts in 143 innings pitched this season, averaging 1.26 strikeouts an inning and 11.3 strikeouts a a game.
• The Cowboys return three of their top four hitters from the 2025 campaign, highlighted by Easton Dowell, who led the team with a .369 batting average. Marcus Heusohn also returns after posting a .327 average and 15 doubles, the third-most on the team, while Larry Edwards Jr. hit .316 and drove in a team-high 47 runs.

• Simon Larranaga returns to the Cowboys after leading them last season in home runs with 12 on the year.
• Cooper Golden returns as the lone weekend starter from last season after compiling a 3-3 record and 4.71 ERA in 14 starts and 15 appearances. 
• Cowboys will play 32 home games this season.
• Head Coach, Justin Hill is entering his 13^th season at the helm of the program and is the school's all-time winningest coach with a 365-284 overall record and 180-143 conference record.
• Cowboys return 20 players from last year's team, as well as welcome 21 newcomers to the roster.
• The 21 newcomers for the Cowboys hail from Bossier Parish CC (5), Navarro College (3), Rose State College, LSU-E, National Park College, Hill College, Butler, UNLV, Tyler Juco (2), Delgado CC, Central Missouri, Mississippi College, UT Tyler, and High School (2).
• Three of the Cowboys' opponents this season advanced to the NCAA Regionals last year – Kansas, Houston Christian, and LSU, who won the College World Series against Coastal Carolina.