LAKE CHARLES – Cooper Golden's arm slammed the door shut while Simon Larranaga and Bryce Fontenot's bats did the damage while as McNeese defeated Southeastern 8-2 to take game one of a three-game Southland Conference baseball series here Friday night.
 
Both Fontenot and Larranaga belted home runs in the game while Fontenot collected a career-high three hits and came within a triple of hitting for the cycle.
 
Golden (2-2) looked impressive for his fourth straight conference start in getting the win, dealing a career-high eight innings and 102 pitches. He allowed six hits, struck out five, and walked two.
 
The win improved the Cowboys' record to 11-10 overall and 5-5 in league play while SLU dropped to 12-10 and 4-3. Game two will be played on Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
The first inning long ball was the Cowboys' friend.
 
Fontenot hit a lead-off homer on the first pitch and Larranaga popped a 3-run shot that traveled 450-feet to give McNeese a 5-0 lead after one inning. It was Fontenot's second and Larranaga's first homer of the season.
 
McNeese added two more runs in the second off a sacrifice fly by Matt Stancliff then a run-scoring single from Marcus Heusohn to up the lead to 7-0 after two innings.
 
The Lions got their first two hits of the game against McNeese starter Cooper Golden in the third inning, scoring one run. McNeese's defensive play kept SLU from adding to the scoreboard. Right fielder Danny Barbero held a Lions' runner from tagging at third with a strong throw to home plate, then Connor Schneider fielded a ground ball in deep shortstop territory and made the long throw to first base to end the inning and hold the Lions to one run.
 
SLU added another run in the fourth inning to make it a 7-2 but the Cowboys got the run back in the bottom of the fifth on a DJ Pinkerton double that scored Larranaga to make it 8-2.
 
McNeese put nine hits on the board, led by Fontenot with a 3-for-4 game, home run, double, RBI and two runs scored. Larranaga went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, home run, and two runs scored. Heusohn added a 2-for-3 game with a RBI and run scored.
 
Southeastern finished with seven hits in the game scattered among seven different batters.
 
Starting pitcher Luke Barbier (0-2) took the loss after allowing four runs and was lifted after getting just one out in the first inning.