Deaton’s complete game, Cowboys’ bats lift McNeese to 10-4 win over ACU

ABILENE, Texas – A day after allowing Abilene Christian to score eight of its nine runs on two outs in a 9-3 Wildcat win, McNeese turned the table in Saturday’s second game of a three-game Southland Conference baseball series by downing the Wildcats by a 10-3 score.

McNeese (22-21, 8-12 SLC) got a complete-game win on the mound from senior Rhett Deaton, who improved to 5-3 on the season. Deaton, who missed all of last season due to an injury, threw his first complete game since April 1, 2017 in a 4-1 win over Southeastern Louisiana.

The righty threw 117 pitches in Saturday’s win as the Cowboys evened the series 1-1 with Sunday’s rubber match set to begin at 1 p.m.

Deaton got the help he needed at the plate early on.

McNeese plated four runs in the second inning to open up a 4-0 lead.

Shane Selman connected on a lead-off home run over the left field wall, his fourth of the season and 38th in his career and moving him to within two of Lee Orr (40) for No. 2 on the school’s all-time home run list.

That blast put the Cowboys up 1-0. Not to be outdone, Jake Dickerson followed Selman with a homer of his own, his third of the season, to make it 2-0 before an out was recorded.

Following that, Brett Whelton reached on a throwing error with one out, and after another out, Reid Bourque hit an infield single to put runners at first and second. Payton Harden then belted a two-run double down the left field line to score Whelton and Bourque to increase the lead to 4-0.

McNeese added its third, two-out run of the game in the third when Carson Maxwell doubled in Clayton Rasbeary to make it 5-0, and in the fourth, Nate Fisbeck hit an RBI, two-out double to score Harden to put the Cowboys up 6-0.

ACU (22-19, 9-11) came back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth behind a three-run home run by Dalon Farkas.

That didn’t seem to rattle Deaton as he sat down 12 of the next 14 batters and kept the Wildcats off the scoreboard the fifth through eighth innings.

During that span, McNeese would tack on some insurance runs beginning with three in the seventh, all with two outs, to make it a 9-3 game. Then a Dickerson RBI single in the eighth added a 10th run, the seventh two-out run of the contest scored by the Cowboys.

ACU threatened to rally in the ninth after a one-out, RBI double by Ryne Randle cut the Cowboy lead to 10-4. But Deaton got the next to batters to fly out to record the complete game win.

In throwing all nine innings, Deaton gave up just six hits, struck out three, walked two, and gave up three unearned runs (four total).

ACU starter Brock Barger (2-6) took the loss after allowing five runs, all earned, on five hits in 2 2/3 innings of work.

Offensively, McNeese out-hit the Wildcats by a 13-6 margin.

Harden led the way with a 4-for-6 day with three RBIs and a run scored. It was his first, four-hit game of the season.

Rasbeary and Dickerson added two hits each while eight of the nine batters in the lineup collected at least one hit.