The hottest team in the nation will get its toughest test of the season Tuesday night in Alex Box Stadium.

The opponent will not be in a good mood, either.

The Cowboys, riding a program-best 12-game win streak, will travel to Baton Rouge to play eighth-ranked LSU. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

McNeese State is off to its best start ever at 27-5 and has outscored opponents 126-50 during the streak. The Cowboys moved up to No. 10 in one mid-major poll.

The Tigers (31-6) are coming off being swept last weekend at Auburn.

“They are the best team we are going to play all year,” said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. “It is going to be tough. But the kids love playing in these games and in these big stadiums against good teams.”

Hill should know; he pitched his last two years in college at LSU.

“It’s always nice to go back there,” said Hill. “But we are going to go there and play hard and see what happens.”

The game is of extra importance for McNeese, which could be looking for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament if they can’t win the Southland Conference’s automatic bid.

“I am sorry that the game has some extra importance this time,” said Hill. “We will do what we have been doing all year. We want to win, but we have to worry about next weekend and the conference series.”

The Cowboys are in a 3-way tie for first in the Southland at 14-4 in league play.

That was after they rallied from six runs down in the fifth inning Sunday to topple Incarnate Word 14-7 in San Antonio. McNeese scored the final 13 runs to cap its biggest comeback of the season and set the school record for consecutive victories.

During the streak, McNeese has outscored its opponents 126-50. 

“When you have done what we have done this year, you have to have done things in a lot of different ways,” said Hill.

Sunday, it was Cowboy power and Conner Westenburg that led the way. Westenburg went 4-for-4 with two triples, scored four runs, and drove in two as McNeese rallied from six runs down to sweep Incarnate Word 14-7 in San Antonio.

For the series, Westenburg was 10-for-14 (.715) with eight runs scored and six driven home. He had at least three hits in all three games, helping him earn SLC Player of the Week honors.

“Conner played great all weekend,” said Hill. “He’s the one that gets us going.”

As for the power, Mack Brousseau’s 3-run blast in the seventh gave McNeese the lead for good at 9-7. It came on reliever Hunter Hargett’s first offering and was Brousseau’s fifth of the season.

Marcus Heusohn followed in the eighth with his 3-runner, the third of his season that finished the scoring. Jake Blackwell struck out four of the six batters he faced over the last two innings to close things out for McNeese.

Simon Larranaga started the Cowboys’ power surge with his team-high ninth home run in the sixth, a 2-run drive to left that cut the UIW (15-24, 2-19) lead to just 7-6.

“That’s when I felt like we were coming on strong,” said Hill. “We have the capability to hit for power; it’s just a matter of getting the right people going at the right time.”

Now, they will try to pull off a big upset over the powerful Tigers.