This wasn’t exactly the tune-up the Cowboys were looking for.

With a big series coming up this weekend, McNeese State stumbled Tuesday at home against Louisiana Christian.

The 4-3 loss slowed some momentum and was just the fourth Cowboy defeat at Joe Miller Ballpark. 

“You have to give them all the credit,” said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. “They played better tonight than we did.”

McNeese, which opens a huge series this Friday at Texas-Rio Grande Valley, fell to 29-8 while the Wildcats improved to 24-23. 

The Cowboys missed more than a few opportunities to score. Three times they loaded the bases and weren’t able to come up with the big hit despite collecting eight of them.

“They made all the big plays, all the big pitches, and got all the big hits,” said Hill. “Offensively, what we do well is keep pressure on them; we just had some pressure-free at-bats tonight.

“We got picked off and did a couple of things that kind of allowed them to breathe, and it took away from what we do well.”

The Cowboys scored first with the help of two Wildcat errors. Simon Larranaga had an RBI single to give McNeese the early lead in the bottom of the second. 

The Wildcats responded with a pair of runs in the fourth on Braxton Cookley’s two-run double off Braedyn Cunningham. Gavin Vordik’s solo home run in the fifth gave Louisiana Christian a 3-1 lead.

The Cowboys tied the game at 3-3 on Matt Stancliff’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth. That drove in Conner Westenburg, who had three hits to lead the McNeese offense.

The blast was the second of the year for Stancliff. 

Westenburg finished 3-for-5, including a triple.

In the fifth, the Cowboys picked up a pair of walks to put runners on first and second with one out, after the homer, but a pickoff at second was followed by a flyout to end the rally.

McNeese loaded the bases in the second, sixth, and eighth innings but could not manage to score in those situations.

“The thing is, I thought we were O.K. today,” said Hill. “We were not as crisp as we have been. We will learn from this and we have to flush this quick.”

The Cowboys are tied for first with Southeastern at 16-5 in the Southland Conference, just one game ahead of UTRGV as they head on the road.

Freshman Diego Corrales took the loss for McNeese. It was the first decision of his career. Trip Flotte (2-3) picked up the win while Cowan Alfanso earned his sixth save.