Cowboys take to road, hope to continue momentum through conference

Published 11:37 am Friday, April 1, 2022

For the first time this baseball season, the Cowboys are hitting the road for more than a game.

McNeese State will look to put last weekend’s Southland Conference-opening series behind when it travels to Thibodaux to play three games at first-place Nicholls State starting tonight.

The Cowboys (13-12, 1-2 SLC) will get a chance to play themselves back into the conference race against the Colonels (14-9), who enter the weekend on a five-game winning streak and the lone league team at 3-0.

“They are playing good baseball right now,” said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. “They have a very good weekend last weekend.”

The Colonels swept a series at preseason-favorite Southeastern Louisiana, scoring 27 runs over the three games.

“Hopefully we can build on this success and gain some confidence and build from this the rest of the way,” Nicholls head coach Mike Silva said.

For the Cowboys, who have played 23 of their 25 games at home, the question is: how will they react to being on the road for the first time for more than one game? They have a win at Southern University and a loss at LSU.

Wednesday night they rallied to win at home 9-7 over Southern again. Braden Duhon and Kade Hunter each had three hits and Payton Harden picked up his 200th career hit.

“We have to show up this weekend, be aggressive and play good ball,” Duhon said of the upcoming series. “It’s big.”

As for hitting the road, Hill isn’t too concerned.

“Our guys have been on road trips before so I’m not too worried about that,” Hill said. “They know how to handle themselves and know what is expected.”

What wasn’t expected was losing two of three at home to Houston Baptist. McNeese was picked in a preseason poll to finish second place in the SLC.

“We have not played our best baseball yet,” Hill said. “Your goal is to win a series, to find a way and be aggressive.”

Hill said he hopes Josh Leslie is fully back from an injury. Leslie came up big last weekend, especially Sunday in the lone Cowboys win. He drove in five runs and hit his first home run.

The Cowboys will turn to right-hander Grant Rogers (2-2, 4.60 ERA) for the start. The Colonels will counter with lefty Tyler Theriot (3-1, 3.26).

Both starters have won SLC Pitcher of the Week honors.

The Cowboys are led by Kade Hunter (.385) and Brad Burckel (.364, 19 RBIs) with 26 runs scored.

Duhon has also been hot. Over the last five games he has doubled, tripled and is hitting at .476 clip.

Graduate first baseman Alec Paz (.283) leads Nicholls. He is coming off a big week in which he was named the SLC Hitter of the Week. The Colonels also have Xane Washington (.333, 5 HR, 18 RBIs) and Edgar Alvarez (.316, 5 HR, 25 RBIs).