May 8, 2008

McNeese State gets its final chance at earning a berth in the Southland Conference's post season baseball tournament beginning Friday when the Cowboys host Texas State in the first game of a three game league series.

The Cowboys probably need to win all six remaining conference tilts to get into the tournament. With a 7-17 league record, they are four games in back of eighth place Southeastern Louisiana.

What McNeese needs is to win all six of its games (three are left next week with Lamar) and have Southeastern lose five of its final six. That would give the Cowboys a 13-17 finish and the Lions a 12-18 ending. Only the top eight teams make the tournament field.

A sweep of Texas State is what the Cowboys need and it's possible. The Bobcats, 14-10 in the SLC and 24-23 overall, are on a five game losing streak and have dropped nine of their last 10 games.

McNeese has split in its last six games and stands 13-36 overall.

The series will pit the top two hitters in the conference - McNeese's Taylor Freeman and Texas State's Paul Goldschmidt.

Freeman leads the league with a .386 mark and Goldschmid is batting .364. In league games only, Goldschmidt has a .474 mark and Freeman a .434 average.

Lefthander Tyler Davis is expected to toss Friday's game for the Cowboys. He's 3-8 on the season with a 5.33 ERA. He's struckout 67 batters in 79.1 innings.

Cowboy shortstop Shon Landry moves up the Cowboy all-time ladder in batting categories with each of his at bats. He's now tied for third in career triples with 11, is tied for 19th in doubles with 27, is 10th in runs scored with 120 and is 15th in base hits with 161.

Friday's opener carries a 6:30 p.m. start.