The Cowboys may be limping into the postseason, but at least they don’t have to make a long trip to Edinburg, Texas.

McNeese State lost two of three games at Northwestern State over the weekend but will now get new life in a town where they have already had success this year.

The Cowboys fell to the fifth seed in the Southland Conference after losing their final three regular-season series. After a record 12-game win streak, injuries and a tired bullpen caught up to McNeese.

Now the Cowboys (32-15) will get a fresh start when they take on fourth-seeded Northwestern State again Thursday at 1 p.m. in the Hammond Bracket. 

“It is the second season,” said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. “We get another chance to play some more baseball together. That’s what we want, a chance to win a championship. We put ourselves in that spot.”

The Cowboys have that in a wide-open tournament. McNeese finished in a three-way tie for third at 19-11 in the SLC but lost the tiebreaker to Lamar (third seed) and Northwestern State.

Lamar heads to Edinburg to take on No. 6 Houston Christian in the bracket hosted by No. 2 Texas-Rio Grande Valley. In the late game Thursday night in Edinburg, UTRGV will take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (No. 7).

Back in Hammond, No. 1 Southeastern will host eighth-seeded New Orleans in the late game. The Lions and UTRGV tied for the title, but SELA won that tiebreaker, showing just how close this race was all season.

“I think just about any team can win this depending on how they play the next two weeks,” said Hill. “Every weekend has been a dog fight this year. We have a lot of good teams in this conference. That makes it exciting for everybody.”

McNeese should feel good heading into this bracket despite the tough weekend against the Demons. The Cowboys are 8-4 against the other clubs in Hammond.

“I don’t think that matters now,” said Hill. “We just have to play better baseball.”

McNeese took two of three from Southeastern and swept New Orleans. Against the Demons, the Cowboys lost 7-6 in the series finale when their late rally came up short. 

Junior outfielder Bryce Jones, making just his third start of the season and second in a row, had three hits and drove in four runs for McNeese Saturday. Jones homered in his last two at-bats, and the Cowboys hope they can carry that momentum into the postseason.

“Bryce, we could see him getting healthy, so we put him in to see what we had,” said Hill. “We saw we might have something.”

The Cowboys hope to get a couple of arms back as well.

“We went to UTRGV and we lost two tough ballgames,” said Hill. “We had a lead late in both of them. I think our team got discouraged.

“That part’s over. We didn’t get to where we wanted. I think you’ll see a little bit different group come Thursday.”

It will be a second chance for the 32-15 Cowboys.