April 5, 2008

Box Score

By Josh Brown

McNeese SID Intern

Natchitoches, LA -

The McNeese State Cowboys baseball team snapped a three game skid with a 5-3 victory over eastern division leading Northwestern State here Saturday night.

The Cowboys used a stellar performance on the mound by Tyler Davis to keep the Demons at bay while Justin LeBleu came in to close out the game.

The Cowboys improve to 9-19 on the year, 5-5 in Southland Conference action while the Demons fell to 15-11 on the year, 7-2 in SLC play.

The starting pitchers for both teams had excellent performances on the mound. Davis improved to 3-5 on the year while Jimmy Heard fell to 4-1 on the season for the Demons.

LeBleu got the final two outs of the game to pick up his third save of the season.

Davis pitched a gem, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning on a weakly hit single that fell in front of center-fielder Mace Hebert. Davis left the game with one out in the ninth inning after giving up a total of three runs, two of them earned, on three hits. Davis walked two while striking out nine Demon batters.

Heard nearly matched Davis for the Demons, giving up three runs on five hits in eight innings while walking none and striking out six.

Taylor Freeman extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a solo home run on the first pitch of the inning in the ninth.

The Cowboys got on the board first with an Hebert double to lead off the top of the sixth inning. After Josh Cholley was hit by a pitch, Shon Landry doubled down the left-field line to score Hebert and Cholley to put the Cowboys up 2-0.

The score stayed the same until the bottom of the eighth inning when Northwestern State was able to get on the board after the Demons picked up their first hit of the game on a Chase Lyles single. Lyles advanced to second on a ground out before Brett Johnson singled to score Lyles and put the score at 2-1.

The Cowboys answered right back though with Freeman's solo home run to put the score at 3-1. Bryn Thompson and Nick Eubanks then followed up the home run with singles.

After Andy Riche' came in to pinch-run for Thompson, Keith Patnode laid down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown away by the third baseman, allowing Riche' and Eubanks to score to put the Cowboys up 5-1.

The Demons made it interesting in the ninth inning, getting the score to 5-3 before LeBleu closed the door on them to earn the save.

Hebert led the Cowboys in hitting, picking up two hits and a run scored. Landry picked up one hit and two RBI while Freeman also had one hit and one RBI. Thompson, Eubanks and Patnode had one hit each.

The Cowboys are back in action on Sunday afternoon with a double header scheduled to start at 12 PM. Scott Holstein and Ryan Frantz are the scheduled starters for the Cowboys.