April 7, 2008

McNeese State's baseball team will play five games in the next six days at Cowboy Diamond beginning with a Tuesday night outing with Texas Southern.

The Cowboys also entertain Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday and then begin a three game Southland Conference series with Texas-Arlington on Friday.

Game time on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday will be 6:30 p.m. while Saturday's contest will start at 3 p.m. and Sunday's at 1 p.m.

The Cowboys are now 9-21 on the season after dropping two to Northwestern State in Natchitoches in a league series. Texas Southern will bring an 8-19 record into Tuesday's game.

Last month the Cowboys posted a 15-7 victory over the Tigers in Houston. Shon Landry and Nick Eubanks both blasted home runs in that game while Sam Merrill had five hits.

Dallas Smith was the winning pitcher in that game in relief and he could get the call on Tuesday.

Cowboy head coach Terry Burrows was undecided on his starter against Texas Southern and against Louisiana-Lafayette but possibilities are Smith and Jonathan Conrad. Smith is 2-2 with a 4.79 ERA and Conrad is 0-4 with an 11.22 ERA.

Louisiana-Lafayette will come in with a 14-15 overall record while Texas-Arlington stands 12-19 on the season.

Catcher Taylor Freeman continues to lead the Cowboys in batting average with a .378 mark and he's tops in SLC games only with a .486 mark. Freeman is also currently on a 15 game hitting streak, seeking the school record of 24 in a row that was set by Joe Hulett last year. Hulett was also a catcher for the Pokes.

Landry with a .339 average, Merrill with a .327 mark and Josh Cholley with a .306 are the other Cowboys batting over .300.

In SLC play, McNeese is now 5-7 and in fourth place in the eastern division standings. Lamar leads the way with a 10-2 mark and is followed by Northwestern State at 9-2, SE Louisiana at 6-6, McNeese, Central Arkansas at 3-9 and Nicholls State at 2-10.

Texas State tops the western division at 9-3 while UT San Antonio is 8-4, Sam Houston 6-6, UT Arlington and A&M-Corpus Christi 5-7 and Stephen F. Austin 3-8.