Cowboys drop baseball DH to Lumberjacks on Saturday

LAKE CHARLES – McNeese dropped a baseball double-header Saturday to Stephen F. Austin, falling by scores of 5-2 and 4-3 as the Lumberjacks have taken the Southland Conference series by winning the first three games.

The Cowboys (12-10, 6-4 SLC) will attempt to get a win in the finale on Sunday at 1 with Christian Vega taking the mound.

SFA (7-12, 4-6) got good starting pitching from Jacob Stobart and Joe Todd in each game.

“They’re pitching has really been good this weekend,” said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. “We had some self-inflicted issues that have helped out as well.”

Some of those being a couple of lead-off walks and a catcher’s interference in the second game that led to three of SFA’s four runs.

In the third inning, Gabe Irwin led off with a walk and scored when the next batter, Skylar Black, homered to left field to put the Lumberjacks up 2-0. In the eighth after the Cowboys cut the margin to 2-1 after Nate Fisbeck’s solo home run in the bottom of the seventh, Adrian Minjares reached on a one-out catcher’s interference then eventually scored on a two-out Sean Moore double to up the lead to 3-1.

McNeese battled back in the bottom of the eighth with two runs to tie the game at 3-3. Jake Dickerson led things off with a single off the pitcher’s chest and after the first out of the inning, Julian Gonzales reached on a fielder’s choice after his grounder to second base got the force out on Dickerson at second. Gonzales stole second and Payton Harden and Clayton Rasbeary drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. That brought up Fisbeck, who one inning earlier hit a solo home run, singled in Gonzales and Harden to tie the game.

SFA got the game-winning run with two outs in the ninth off a RBI single by Cerny in an inning that was started with a lead-off walk.

McNeese starter Jonathan Ellison had a good outing by giving up just the two runs off the home run, five hits and struck out seven. Kevin Roliard took the loss after he allowed two runs, one earned, on two hits in 2.2 innings pitched.

Stobart got the win for the Lumberjacks after he threw seven innings and gave up one run, three hits, walked one and struck out seven.

In the first game, the Lumberjacks used a four-run fourth inning to take the lead then added another run in the fifth before the Cowboys scored two in the bottom of the sixth behind a Rasbeary lead off home run and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Reid Bourque.

Rasbeary (2 for 4) and Tré Obrégon III (2 for 2) had multiple hits in the first game that saw starter Will Dion (2-3) take the loss after he allowed five runs and six hits in five innings of work in the scheduled 7-inning game.

Fisbeck had the big stick in the second game, going 2 for 4 with three RBI and a run scored.