McNeese completes four-game sweep of Nicholls

LAKE CHARLES – McNeese’s offense blasted four more home runs on Sunday to give starting pitcher Ty Abraham some support while Cameron Foster closed the door for his fourth save of the season as the Cowboys finished off a four-game sweep over Nicholls with a 6-5 win on Senior Day.

McNeese evened its record to 26-26 overall but more importantly climbed the ladder in the Southland Conference standings by improving to 19-16 and moving closer to a league tournament berth with four games remaining at Central Arkansas.

The Cowboys are now in sixth place with 58 points, just two points behind Northwestern State for fifth and three behind A&M-Corpus Christi for fourth place. The league adopted a point system to determine seedings this season due to games that have been canceled by COVID. A win is worth three points while game canceled due to COVID and rain outs are declared no-contest outcomes and one point is awarded to each team.

On Sunday, the Cowboys used the long ball much like they did the previous three games in the series. McNeese entered the finale having hit nine homers in the first three games with seven of those popped in Saturday’s doubhle-header.

After Nicholls (20-31, 15-21 SLC, 45 points) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third, Reid Bourque put the Cowboys up 2-1 with a two-run homer after Julian Gonzales started things off with an infield single.

Another two-run home run, this time by Kade Morris in the fifth inning, increased the lead to 4-1. Solo home runs in the sixth by Nate Fisbeck and Tré Obregon in the sixth inning lifted the score to 6-1.

Nicholls rallied back with three runs in the seventh and another in the eighth to close the gap to 6-4 but Foster came in to relieve Christian Vega with two on and one out in the eighth and got the Cowboys out of the jam. He then sat the Colonels down in order in the ninth to secure the sweep.

Abraham (3-2) picked up the win after throwing 6 1/3 innings and allowing two earned runs on four hits with seven strike outs. Vega relieved Abraham with one out in the seventh and gave up a three-run homer before getting the final two outs of the frame.

Bourque led the Cowboys at the plate by going 3 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. He added a double and a single with his home run and was just a triple short of hitting for the cycle.

Gonzales went 1 for 2 on the day with a walk, and in the four games, reached base in 12 of his 14 plate appearances (5 for 7 hitting, four walks, three hit-by-pitches).

Nicholls starting pitcher Nick Heckman (2-6) took the loss after giving up all six runs in 5 1/3 innings on six hits.

McNeese will close out the regular season at Central Arkansas beginning Thursday.

Notes:
• McNeese recognized its 14 seniors in a pregame ceremony – 12 players and two managers.
• The Cowboys hit 13 home runs in the four game series, batted .325, and stole 11 bases.
• Of those 13 homers, eight of those came from the bottom half of the batting order.
• Julian Gonzales hit .714 in the four games, slugged 2.000 and had an .867 on-base percentage.
• The Cowboys ended their home slate with a 20-8 record at Joe Miller Ballpark.