McNeese completes sweep with 11-5 win over Prairie View

LAKE CHARLES – McNeese’s Peyton Johnson and Kade Morris hit the first home runs of the season for the Cowboys on Sunday while Clayton Rasbeary kept his stick red hot in the early season by going 3 for 4 on the day with two doubles, two RBIs and three runs scored as the Cowboys completed the series sweep over Prairie View with an 11-5 win.

With the sweep, McNeese improves to 4-3 on the season and will host Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday night at 6.

Six pitchers combined to get the win for the Cowboys with Sean-Michael Brady, the third to take the mound, getting the win. Cameron Foster started the game and threw 3.1 innings, giving up two earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts.

“I thought Foster threw the ball okay today,” said head coach Justin Hill. “We had the right guys on the mound, especially in the back half.”

Julian Gonzales added a 2 for 3 game at the plate with an RBI and run scored. His two-out RBI single in the fifth inning helped keep a Cowboy rally alive and was followed by a monster blast by Morris over the left field wall that capped a five-run inning to give the Cowboys an 8-3 lead after heading into the bottom of the frame tied 3-3.

McNeese added three more runs in the eighth inning, two of those coming off the bat of Rasbeary who placed a hard hit ball down the right field line for his second double of the game.

Prairie View (0-4) scored first in the top of the second to lead 1-0 but Johnson tied it in the bottom of the stanza with a solo homer in left-center field off the top wall.

After the Panthers took a 2-1 lead in the third, a couple of back to back sacrifice flies by Brett Whelton and Johnson put McNeese back on top 3-2 after two runs scored without McNeese getting a hit in the inning as Prairie View pitching walked the first three Cowboy batters that stepped up to the plate.

Both teams recorded 10 hits in the game with half of McNeese’s going for extra bases.

Morris, originally a third baseman, played both shortstop and catcher and made a couple of outstanding defensive plays to keep Prairie View from mounting any kind of rally.