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Special to the American Press

McNeese State will host longtime, Interstate 10 rival Louisiana-Lafayette at 6 p.m. today in a baseball.

The Cowboys (4-3) are coming off a four-game weekend sweep of Prairie View A&M.

The Cajuns (6-2) are coming off a three-game sweep over Rice in Lafayette. ULL hosted Louisiana Tech Tuesday night.

Left-hander Ellison returns from an injury and will be see his first action of the season for the Cowboy. He appeared in four games in 2020, compiling a 2.61 ERA in 101⁄3 innings with 11 strikeouts with opponents hitting .171 against him.

The Cowboys are hitting .296 with 17 doubles, four triples and two home runs. They are led by Clayton Rasbeary who tops the Cowboys in hitting (.519) and RBIs (7) and is tied with Nate Fisbeck with five doubles. Payton Harden has two triples to lead the squad.

ULL, which leads the series 101-77, has won six of the last seven meetings, including last year’s 7-0 game in Lake Charles.

More honors for Dion

The national honors kept rolling in for McNeese State pitcher Will Dion on Tuesday when the redshirt sophomore was named National Pitcher of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, Perfect Game and D1 Baseball. In addition, he garnered Southland Conference Pitcher of the Week honors while Cowboys right fielder Clayton Rasbeary was named the league’s Hitter of the Week.

Dion tied a school record with 19 strikeouts on Friday while tossing a 5-0 complete-game win over Prairie View A&M

It was the first complete game and shutout in his collegiate career.

In the win, Dion threw 103 pitches with 83 of those going for strikes.He retired the first 13 batters faced before giving up a walk and a one-out single in the fifth inning. He faced 30 batters, three over the minimum.

Rasbeary hit .600 in a four-game sweep over Prairie View. The redshirt senior hit four doubles, a triple, knocked in six runs and score three.McNeese baseball