One good walk-off deserves another.

After suffering three walk-off losses at the hands of the Cowboys this season, Southeastern Louisiana got one back.

The Lions evened the Southland Conference best-of-three championship series at a game apiece Friday night with a 3-2 victory before 1,304 fans at Joe Miller Ballpark.

Cowboys pitcher Christian Vega walked Christian Garcia with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth 23 hours after McNeese (34-22) walked off the Lions in the opener.

“We were just trying to strike somebody out right there,” said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. “They got a couple hits, got the bunt down and put pressure on us.”

The walk scored Preston Faulkner, who led off the inning with a single, from third. Faulkner was 3-for-3 and is a blistering 6-for-9 in the series.

The teams will play the deciding game tonight with a trip to the NCAA regionals on the line. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. with regular-season champion McNeese as the home team.

“It’s one game for a trip to the tournament, that’s what it comes down to,” Hill said. “You can’t ask for anything more than that.”

The win was the first in the last seven meetings against the Cowboys for Southeastern (29-29). It also snapped McNeese’s eight-game win streak and record 12th in a row in SLC Tournament play.

Neither coach would say who they will throw to start the deciding game.

The Lions tied the score 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth on the closest of margins.

Pinch-runner Joe Delaney raced home from third on a Bryce Grizzaffi squeeze bunt. Delaney beat the tag by catcher Andruw Gonzales after Grizzaffi’s bunt was fielded by pitcher Tyler Stone.

The umpires reviewed the play for close to 5 minutes before upholding the safe call.

Gonzales misplayed a strikeout that would have been the second out of the inning. When the batter swing at a third strike the ball bounced away and Gonzales tried for the runner at third instead of taking the easy out at first.

“That was a reaction play and it didn’t work out,” Hill said. “You got to move on.”

McNeese scored both its runs in the first when Josh Leslie hit a two-out single to center field. That scored Payton Harden and Kade Hunter.

Hunter had set the inning up with a double to left with one out.

Other than Leslie’s hit, the Cowboys had a hard time finishing off rallies, leaving 11 runners on base.

“We just didn’t get the big hit,” Hill said. “We will be ready and so will they.”

SLU improved to 5-0 in elimination games in its postseason run after winning four straight to win the Hammond Bracket.