Playing power teams has become a staple of the McNeese State softball program, so it is no surprise where the team is headed this weekend.

The Cowgirls (11-4) are off to Baton Rouge to participate in the Purple & Gold Challenge featuring No. 3 LSU.

The three-day event will see the Cowgirls take on LSU twice, along with single games against San Diego State, Illinois, and Louisiana Tech. McNeese will open the event Friday with a 1:30 p.m. game against the Aztecs from San Diego.

“It is another opportunity to play against really good softball programs for us,” said McNeese head coach James Landreneau. “We can’t really prepare for that many teams, that many arms. We will just have to adjust as we go.”

The Cowgirls have already played the No. 1 team in the country, Oklahoma twice, along with Top 25 Baylor and the Pac-12’s California as part of their usually tough early schedule. 

However, McNeese isn’t concerned about who they play but rather how well they play against bigger schools. The Cowgirls are concerned about winning such games. 

“Those things are past us,” said Landreneau. “We respect LSU and those other programs, but we have been winning against national teams for years.”

Over the last two seasons, McNeese has knocked off such big softball programs as LSU, Notre Dame, and Washington to name a few. In fact, they beat Notre Dame twice two years ago and Washington twice last season.

“The name of who we are playing doesn’t affect us as much as other people,” said Landreneau. “We are used to playing and beating teams for some time. They are at the level we want to play at.

“It’s what we expect to do. We feel we have earned it.”

McNeese will head to Baton Rouge today after picking up its first victory over a Power 5 opponent. The Cowgirls outlasted Houston 6-5 Wednesday night in 13 innings. 

Corine Poncho’s sacrifice fly in the top of the 13th scored Reese Reyna from third with the winning run. Reyna had started the inning with a double and stole third before racing home.

Poncho drove in three runs while hitting her eighth home run of the season. Crislyne Moreno finished 4-for-5, including her first home run of the year. The junior outfielder raised her batting average to .452 with the big night.

Lynn Schexnayder pitched 6⅔ innings of relief, allowing just one run on six hits, to improve her record to 4-0. Lindsay Davis picked up her second save by getting the final two outs.

“You can see the competitive nature of this group with how hard they play,” said Landreneau. “The thing I liked about Houston is we showed maturity in big situations.” 

McNeese will take a six-game winning streak with it to Baton Rouge as they start a seven-game stretch over the next six days.

“We will see how we do over this week against some really good teams,” said Landreneau.