Despite another bad first inning, the Cowgirls continued on their winning ways.

McNeese State completed a 3-game Southland Conference series sweep of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Wednesday afternoon at Joe Miller Field.

It wasn’t like the first two games, which ended in just five innings by the run rule; the series finale went the distance. Still, the outcome was the same.

With a 9-4 victory over the Islanders, the Cowgirls won their fifth straight and kept a share of the lead in the league with nine games remaining.

McNeese is tied with Southeastern for first after the Lady Lions scored three times in the top of the seventh for a 3-2 victory. Two Lamar errors proved costly.

However, McNeese holds the tiebreaker in the race for the league’s top seed in the postseason. The top two teams will host four-team pods, with the winners meeting at the higher surviving seed’s home.

With the win, the Cowgirls improved to 28-17, 14-4. Corpus Christi fell to 9-29, 3-15.

“We are trying to focus on one game at a time,” said junior Jada Munoz. “We don’t worry about the rest.”

Munoz stayed hot for McNeese, picking up two more hits and driving in a pair of runs. Her double in the bottom of the first drove in Kassidy Chance and Nyjah Fontenot. Both walked to start the inning.

That tied the game after the Islanders picked up two runs on Mimi Thornton’s double off the wall in center in the top of the frame.

“Again, we give up two runs in the first inning, and we have to play catchup,” said McNeese head coach James Landreneau. “We still have a lot of things we have to clean up, but I like we are getting better.”

Munoz scored on Rylie Bouvier’s bunt double moments after her hit, and the Cowgirls had the lead for good. Bouvier scored on a squeeze bunt by Brylie Fontenot to give McNeese a 4-2 lead after one.

“We are trying to score a run in every inning,” said Munoz. “Getting back into it right away was big.”

Munoz ended the series 5-for-9 with a homer, three doubles, and seven runs batted, giving her 33 for the season.

Madison Espinoza hit her first home run of the season for the Islanders in the third to cut the McNeese lead to 4-3, but that was as close as Corpus Christi would get. 

The Cowgirls scored two in the fourth when Sarah Allen raced home on Gwinn Hall’s double. Hall then scored on Delaney Durham’s single.

McNeese added a run in the fifth on Onna McElroy’s third home run of the year to lead 7-3. 

Kadence Williams worked three innings in relief, allowing just a run on four hits to earn the victory. The freshman improved to 8-7 with the win.

Corpus Christi starter Siarah Galvan took the loss, falling to 0-5. 

“Anytime you get three wins in a conference series, it’s good,” said Landreneau. “We have to forget about the standings and worry about how we play.”

The Cowgirls will get little rest as they head to Houston Christian for three games starting Friday.