BREAKING: Cowboys earn invite to Southland Tournament
Published 5:11 pm Saturday, May 13, 2023
- McNeese State's Ty Abraham. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
The Cowboys will play in the Southland Conference Tournament.
Behind the stellar pitching of Ty Abraham, McNeese State clinched its spot in the postseason with a 4-2 victory over Northwestern State Saturday afternoon in Natchitoches.
Abraham went the distance, allowing just five hits to the Demons. With the win the Pokes improved to 12-11 in the conference and 32-17 overall.
Payton Harden’s solo home run in the top of the eighth inning broke a 2-2 tie. McNeese added an insurance run in the ninth just for good measure.
But this game belonged to Abraham, who went 8.2 innings before running out of gas. Brock Barthelemy followed and struck out James Starnes with the bases loaded for his second save of the season.
Abraham struck out a career-high 13 as he evened his record to 2-2.
“That was big for us today,” McNeese head coach Justin Hill said of Abraham. “For him to do what he did today for us was impressive.”
Abraham’s gem came just hours after ace Grant Rogers lost for the first time on the season. Abraham threw 112 pitches, 82 for strikes during the longest outing of his career.
Harden’s home run was his third of the season. Josh Leslie also homered, hitting his eighth of the season in the first to give McNeese a 1-0 lead.
“Big players do big things in big moments,” Hill said of Harden’s blast that hit off the foul pole in right field.
McNeese still hopes to avoid playing in the play-in game of the tournament. The top five seeds advance while the sixth and seventh place finishers will square off in a single-game elimination.
McNeese will finish SLC play today when Bryson Hudgens goes to the mound for the third time after Tommy John surgery. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
