April 21, 2008

McNeese State's baseball team will be out to snap an eight game losing streak on Tuesday when it travels to Houston to take on the No. 29 ranked Cougars.

Gametime is 6:30 p.m. and all action will be broadcast over Cajun Radio 1470-AM.

Following that game the Cowboys will move over to Baton Rouge where they will play LSU on Wednesday. They return home for a three game Southland Conference series with TAM-Corpus Christi beginning Friday.

The Cowboys hold a 10-29 overall record and are 5-13 in league play. Tuesday's matchup will be a return engagement, as Houston beat the Cowboys by an 11-1 score in Lake Charles the last part of March.

McNeese head coach Terry Burrows has not announced a starting pitcher against the Cougars but he has been going with either Dallas Smith or Jonathan Conrad during week day games. Smith, a lefthander, is 2-2 on the season with a 7.36 ERA while Conrad, a righthander, is 1-5 with a 10.55 ERA.

In catcher Taylor Freeman the Cowboys have the top hitter in the SLC. He's batting .407 on the season and also leads the team in home runs with seven and in RBIs with 39.

Second high on the team in hitter is Keith Patnode who has been mainly used as a designated hitter. He's on a 12 game hitting streak and is batting .322.

The only other player hitting over .313 for the Cowboys, who are batting .276 as a team, is outfielder Sam Merrill with a .313 mark.

Conrad was the loser in the first meeting with Houston, giving up 10 hits and eight runs in five innings.