FRISCO, Texas – After delivering at the plate last week, McNeese senior second baseman
Matt Stancliff has been named the Southland Conference Hitter of the Week the league office announced Monday afternoon. Stancliff is the first Cowboy this season to earn weekly honors.
Stancliff recorded a dominant offensive performance last week, going 7-for-14 (.500) at the plate to lead the Cowboys to a 4-1 record, highlighted by a marquee victory over #1/2 LSU.
The Cowboys will be back in action on Tuesday when they visit Southern and return home for a Wednesday afternoon game against LSU-Alexandria.
Series Information: vs Southern
- Location: Lee-Hines Stadium | Baton Rouge, LA
- Last 5 Meetings: 5-0
- Last Meeting: March 25,2025 | McNeese, 15-5 in Lake Charles
Records:
- McNeese (5-6,2-1)
- Southern (4-7,0-0)
Gameday Notebook:
- Cowboys have won the last eight matchups against the Jaguars
- Last time the Cowboys lost to the Jaguars was March 31, 2025, at home
- Coming into the game with a 4-1 record on the road
- Fifth consecutive road game for McNeese as they return home Wednesday night to take on LSU-Alexandria
- Coming off conference-series opener win over Nicholls taking two of the three games
- Captured a midweek win against #1/#2 LSU, 7-6 at The Box
- The win over LSU marks only the second win by the Cowboys over a top-ranked team in school history, with the first being against LSU in 2019
- Cooper Golden matched his career high six innings pitched while striking out five in the Friday night game
- Matt Stancliff was 5-for-5 at the plate, a triple shy of hitting for the cycle in the Friday night game.
- Jake Blackwell picked up his first career save as a Cowboy on Friday night.
- Eric Nachtsheim made his first career start striking out a career high nine batters after tossing six complete innings on Saturday night.
- Danny Barbero was 4-for-6 on Saturday crossing the plate twice while knocking in three runs.
- Paul Coppinger tallied his first loss of the season during Sunday's series finale.
- Korey Cooper and Bryce Fontenot will enter the game on a two-game hit streak.
- Eric Nachsteim leads the pitching staff in strikeouts on the season with 23 recorded in four appearances.
- Hayden Stringfellow has a reached base streak of six and a reached safely streak of six.
- Matt Stancliff leads the team in batting average hitting .425 with 17 hits, two doubles, two home runs, and eight RBI's.
- Hayden Stringfellow is second on the team in batting average with .357 and in hits with 15 on the season.
- Matt Stancliff leads the Cowboys with 10 stolen bases
- The Cowboys offense accounted for 24 hits, 3 doubles, one home run and 17 RBI's in their conference opener at Nicholls.
- 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 13th 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.
