April 13, 2008

Box Score

by Josh Brown

Intern

The McNeese State Cowboys dropped the third and final game of its Southland Conference series against Texas-Arlington by a 13-12 score here Sunday despite an aerial assault.

Taylor Freeman belted three home runs to tie a McNeese single-game record while Keith Patnode added a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth with the Cowboys trying to rally for the win.

The rally came up short for the Pokes however, as they fall to 10-25 overall with a 5-10 SLC record. The Mavericks earned their first ever sweep at Cowboy Diamond to improve to 15-20 overall with a 8-7 SLC record.

The Cowboy fell behind early in this one as they gave up single runs in each of the first two innings.

McNeese would answer in the bottom half of the second when Freeman led offthe inning with a solo home run. Nick Eubanks then walked and advanced to second on a Patnode walk. Kanon Broussard then reached base on a fielding error by the UTA shortstop to load the bases.

Mace Hebert singled up the middle to score Eubanks and tie the game at 2-2. Sam Merrill then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Patnode, followed by a hard Josh Cholley liner off the hip of the UTA pitcher toscore Broussard and put the Cowboys up 4-2.

The Cowboys first lead of the series would only last one-third of an inning however, as starter Ryan Frantz got the first man to line out in the top of the third before four straight Mavericks reached base, including a three-run home run by Andrew Kainer to put UTA back on top.

The Mavericks scored five runs total in the inning, staking out a 7-4 lead.

UTA scored a single run in the top of the fourth and three runs in the top of the fifth to score in five straight innings and take a 11-4 lead over.

Freeman got the Cowboys on the board once again when he hit his second home run in the fifth inning to put a small dent in the UTA lead at 11-5. He did the most damage with his third and final homer of the day in the bottom of the seventh inning, this time hitting a three-run shot over the centerfield wall to draw the Cowboys to within three runs at 11-8.

The Mavericks were able to extend their lead to 13-8 with two runs in the top of the ninth before a furious rally in the ninth inning fell just short for the Cowboys.

Eubanks reached on a single before being brought home on a Patnode home run to cut the UTA lead back to three runs. Justin Beitzel then walked with Ryan Brauninger coming in to pinch hit.

Brauninger then singled to left field, with the ball getting under the glove of the fielder and rolling all the way to the wall, scoring Beitzel and having Brauninger end up on second base.

Jordan Venable came in to pinch run for the Cowboys, advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a Merrill single to the shortstop to put the Cowboys within one at 13-12.

That is how the game would end however, with Shon Landry hitting a hard line drive in the next at-bat right to the left fielder to end the game and the Cowboys rally.

Freeman and Eubanks each collected three hits on the day to lead the Cowboy offense. Hebert, Merrill, Cholley and Patnode each had two hits apiece while Brauninger went 1-for-1 in his pinch hitting appearance.

Freeman collected a total of five RBIs on his three homers. Patnode and Merrill had two each while Cholley and Hebert had one apiece.

The Cowboys are back in action on Wednesday against Louisiana-Monroe and then face Sam Houston State in a weekend series, all games on the road. --