HAMMOND – McNeese baseball knocked off Southland Conference regular season champion Southeastern 8-5 Sunday afternoon to advance to the Southland Conference Championship Series behind timely hitting and a dominant relief outing from Eric Nachtsheim.

With the win, the Cowboys improve to 31-23 overall, while Southeastern falls to 32-21 on the season. McNeese will now face Lamar in a best-of-three championship series beginning Thursday in Beaumont with first pitch slated for 6 p.m.

After one scoreless inning, McNeese struck first in the top of the second when Marcus Heusohn launched his third home run in the last four games over the right field wall to plate the first two runs of the afternoon and give the Cowboys an early 2-0 lead.

Southeastern responded in the bottom half of the inning when Alex Perry scored on a wild pitch to cut the McNeese lead to 2-1 heading into the third.

The Lions grabbed their first lead of the day in the third inning courtesy of a two-RBI single from Justin Williams through the right side that scored Connor Cuff and Peyton Woods to put Southeastern in front 3-2.

McNeese answered back in the fourth inning as Korey Cooper singled to center field to drive in Heusohn and even the score at three apiece. Later in the inning, Hayden Stringfellow lined a single to left field that scored Easton Dowell from third to give the Cowboys the lead back at 4-3.

The Cowboys added to their advantage in the sixth inning when Dowell reached on a fielder's choice that allowed Heusohn to score. Danny Barbero followed with a sacrifice fly to shallow center field that plated Connor Walker and extended the lead to 6-3.

McNeese added another insurance run in the seventh inning as Walker singled to left center field to drive in DJ Pinkerton and push the Cowboys' lead to 7-3.

Southeastern continued to battle back late in the game as Connor Cuff sent his 16th home run of the season over the right center field wall in the seventh inning. Alex Perry followed with a solo home run to left field in the eighth to trim the deficit to 7-5.

Isaiah Keller responded for McNeese in the top of the ninth, blasting his 12th home run of the season and fourth of the tournament weekend to center field to provide the Cowboys with an insurance run and the eventual 8-5 final.

Nachtsheim earned the win in relief after tossing the final six innings while allowing two runs on four hits and striking out six. With the outing, Nachtsheim set the McNeese single-season strikeout record with 125 strikeouts on the year.

Southeastern's starter was charged with the loss after allowing four runs on seven hits across five innings while striking out five.