Conner Westenburg’s race around the bases is the latest way the Cowboys found victory Wednesday night.

Westenburg walked with one out in the top of the 10th, took two bases on the first wild pitch, and then scored on the next to lift McNeese to a key 4-3 extra-innings victory at Houston.

The win was the ninth straight for the Cowboys, who continue to find new ways to win games. At 24-5, the Pokes tied the best start in program history, which was accomplished first in 1991.

Some consider McNeese a bubble team for an NCAA Tournament bid if they don’t win the Southland, but they picked up what could be a significant victory against the 19-14 Cougars from the Big 12.

The Cowboys will move on to San Antonio, where they will try to get back to SLC play with a three-game weekend series against Incarnate Word. The opener is Friday at 2:05  p.m.

McNeese used 10 pitchers in the win, each going one inning. The Cowboys ended a three-game losing streak to the Cougars in the process.

Despite giving up a run to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, left-hander Jake Blackwell picked up the victory to improve to 3-1. Blackwell has thrown an inning in the Cowboys’ last five games, picking up three wins and one save over the last four.

Eric Nachtsheim worked the 10th to earn his first save. In Nachtsheim’s last 10 appearances, the right-hander has allowed just one run. 

Larry Edwards made the play of the night to start at the bottom of the 10th when he caught a fly ball off Tre Broussard’s bat while crashing into the wall right on the line in fair territory. 

Edwards also came up with the game’s biggest hit, a 3-run double in the top of sixth with the Cowboys trailing 1-0. The hit gives Edwards 29 runs batted in on the season, tops on McNeese.

The Cougars scored a run in the seventh on a ground out, scoring Tyler Cox from third. They tied the game on Coby DeJesus’s sacrifice fly. Houston took a 1-0 lead in the fifth on Broussard’s RBI double.