It was 16 days ago when the Cowboys suffered through a long bus ride home from New Orleans.

They are not the first folks ever to return to Lake Charles from a lost weekend in the Crescent City. It’s happened to more than a few.

They had just been swept by the Privateers in a 3-game series that had them just 3-6 in the Southland Conference and 16-16 overall.

“The UNO series was bad,” said shortstop Reid Bourque. “We knew we were a better team, we just didn’t play to our caliber.”

That included blowing a 7-0 lead in the final game.

“That made us lock back in,” said Bourque.

Since then the Cowboys have been rolling, sweeping all six of their Southland games. They have also won 7-of-8 overall.

Their only loss came in 10 innings at Louisiana-Monroe last Wednesday night after they had rallied to send the game into extra innings. Tonight the Cowboys, now 23-17 overall and 8-6 in the league, get a chance to make up for that defeat.

McNeese will host UL-Monroe at Joe Miller Ballpark at 6 p.m.

“We played well in that game up there,” McNeese head coach Justin Hill said of the loss at Monroe. “We fought hard, we just didn’t get the big hit when we needed it.”

That has not been the case since. In their last five SLC games the Cowboys have won three in walk-off fashion. Two of those came by way of home runs.

Dramatic comebacks and exciting finishes have become the norm for McNeese, which finds itself tied with Nicholls for first place with nine games remaining in the regular season. The top two teams will host four-team, double-elimination tournaments in the postseason.

The two winners of the mini tourneys will then play a best 2-of-3 series at the home of the team with the better conference seed. McNeese holds the tie-breaker with Nicholls having won a series against the Colonels earlier this year.

Hill said he is not worried about that yet.

“I think you just go out and play hard and what happens,” said Hill. “I have said all along I think the sites of those two tournaments won’t be decided until the final day.”

The Cowboys turnaround resembles the one from last season, when they used a tough trip to Northwestern State as a starting point.

McNeese would rally after that trip to eventually win the SLC postseason title and a trip to the TCU Regional.

McNeese is riding high now after coming off it’s most exciting weekend of the year. The sweep over Southeastern was the first for the Cowboys over the Lions since 2006. The change is a simple one according to Hill.

“I think we were focused on what we wanted to do and now we are focused on what we need to do to get where we want to go,” Hill said.

That leads to tonight’s game. McNeese used seven pitchers in last week’s loss to Monroe and that could be the way it goes again tonight.

Outfielder Ryan Cupit was 3-for-4 for Monroe and the only Warhawk to have more than one hit. Payton Harden had three hits and Jordan Yeatts drove in two runs to lad the Cowboys.

After tonight, McNeese will travel to Corpus Christi Texas for a 3-game set against the Islanders beginning Friday.

Foster named SLC Pitcher of the Week

Closer Cameron Foster was honored as the top pitcher in the Southland Conference for his performance on the mound last week.

He made relief appearances in 4 of 5 games and pitched six innings without giving up a hit or an earned run.

He added two saves to his Southland Conference leading 10 and earned a win in relief in the Cowboys’ series opener against Southeastern Louisiana on Friday. He pitched four innings in that game with five strikeouts.

Foster is 3-1 this season with a 1.14 earned run average and 54 strikeouts in 391/3 innings.