March 31, 2008

McNeese State's Cowboys will play five baseball games over the next six days beginning at Tulane on Tuesday.

The Cowboys also come back home to host Louisiana-Monroe on Wednesday and then travel to Natchitoches to take on Northwestern State Friday, Saturday and Sunday in a Southland Conference series.

Now 8-17 on the season after dropping two of three games to Southeastern Louisiana this past weekend, the Cowboys have lost three of their last five games. Tulane is 18-8 on the year and won two of three from UAB on the weekend but also bowed to the Lions in the same week.

Louisiana-Monroe is 17-8 on the season, has won its last three games and is 9-3 on the road.

Northwestern State stands 15-10 overall and is second in the eastern divison of the SLC standings with a 7-1 record.

As of Monday afternoon, Cowboy head coach Terry Burrows was undecided on his starting pitchers for Tuesday and Wednesday. During the past three game series with Southeastern, he used nine different hurlers.

One player who will be in the lineup is catcher Taylor Freeman who has lifted his batting average to .408 while on a 10 game hitting streak. Shortstop Shon Landry is hitting .361 and leads the team with five home runs and 25 RBIs while leftfielder Josh Cholley is hitting .333 and centerfielder Sam Merrill his batting .319.

In Southland Conference games only, Freeman leads the league with a .556 average.

Tulane's top hitter is Seth Henry with a .356 mark. Andrew Rodgers is batting .314 with a team high seven home runs and Rob Segedin is hitting .309 with a team high 26 RBIs.

Tuesday's meeting with Tulane is the only one between the two teams this season while the Cowboys will travel to Monroe to play the Warhawks on April 16.