A pivotal series will come down to a meaningful game.

Parker Coley homered twice as Southeastern rebounded Saturday to win the second game of an important set with McNeese State.

Coley’s blasts highlighted a 12-3 victory for the Lions as they evened their series at Joe Miller Ballpark and set up a showdown Sunday.

The Lions (22-20, 4-10) are tied with McNeese (20-21, 4-10) in the race for eighth place in the Southland Conference. Only the top eight teams make the postseason tournament.

Sunday’s winner will have a two-game lead with nine league games remaining thanks to the tie-breaker in the chase for the tourney. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.

McNeese rallied from a five-run deficit to claim the series opener 9-8 Friday night. 

Coley took advantage of a strong wind blowing out to left to hit his fifth and sixth home runs of the season, the first a solo shot in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie. That started a five-run inning for the Lions.

Christian Garcia’s two-run single was the final blow of the rally that put SLU up 6-1 and the Lions never looked back.

Coley’s second homer was a two-run shot in the three-run eighth and ended all thoughts of another McNeese comeback, putting the Lions up 9-2. Coley struck out three times and walked in his other four times at the plate.

Garcia finished with two hits and three runs batted in.

McNeese’s final run came in the bottom of the eighth on Grant Mangrum’s third homer of the season. Parker Stroh hit his second home run in the fourth to tie the game 1-1.

Dakota Lee worked seven innings and allowed five hits and two runs to improve to 1-3. Kainin Morrow (3-2) took the loss.

McNeese will attempt to win its first conference series of the season today with a victory.