McNeese downs Southern Miss, Valparaiso to conclude Lake Area Classic

LAKE CHARLES – The McNeese Cowboys baseball team completed the sweep in Sunday’s double-header to finish the Lake Area Classic with an 18-8 seven inning win against Southern Mississippi and an 8-3 victory over Valparaiso.

In game one, the Cowboys had back-to-back seven run innings, hit five home runs, and had 17 total hits.

In game two, the Cowboys pitching shut things down for Valpo, the four pitchers combined for 12 strikeouts, only allowed one walk, and surrendered three runs, but one was unearned.

The winning pitchers of the day were Daniel Hecker (1-2) and Kale Breaux (1-1), each getting their first wins of the season. Hecker pitched 2.0 innnings in relief and only allowed three runs, only two earned, on one hit and three walks.

Breaux had a special day, starting game one in center field and starting game two on the mound. He went 3-for-5 from the plate, scored two runs, and had two RBI’s in game one. Then in game two, he pitched 4.0 innings, only allowed two runs on four hits and fanned six batters, five of which went down looking.

Tre Obregon III was a triple away from the cycle in game one and Payton Harden was a home run away from it in game two.

The Cowboys will look to build off this momentum next weekend when they play host to UL-Monroe in a three game series starting at 6 p.m. on Friday.

GAME 1 vs SOUTHERN MISS

KEY INNINGS
1st | In the top of the inning, the Golden Eagles plated the games first run off a walk and RBI double to take the early lead 1-0 after the first.

2nd | In the bottom of the inning, Tre Obregon III hit a single into center field and then was brought home on Peyton Johnson’s home run to left field to give the Cowboys the lead after two 2-1.

3rd | in the top of the inning, Southern Miss reclaimed the lead, scoring four runs on three hits and two walks to make it 5-2 after the third.

4th | In the bottom of the inning, Clayton Rasbeary lead off with a home run to left, followed by Whelton reaching on a hit-by-pitch and then was brought home on Obregon III’s home run to left field to tie the game at 5-5 and no outs in the inning. Then, Julian Gonzales reached on a walk, two batters later, Kale Breaux hit a single in to center field. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch and then Gonzales was safe at home on Bourque’s infield fielder’s choice to give the Cowboys the 6-5 lead. After Bourque stole second, Jake Dickerson brought everyone home on a no-doubt home run over the right field wall to make it 9-5 after the fourth.

5th | In the top of the inning, the Golden Eagles scored three runs on one hit, three walks, and a hit-by-pitch to make it 9-8.

In the McNeese half of the inning, Obregon III lead off with a double down the left field line, followed by Gonzleas being hit-by-pitch and Johnson reaching on a fielder’s choice. Now with runners on the corners Breaux laid down a bunt single down first base line to plate Obregon III.Then the Cowboys scored three runs on back-to-back-to-back RBI singles by Bourque, Dickerson, and Fisbeck. Now with the score 13-8 and two runners on, Brett Whlton hit the Cowboys fifth home run of the day and made the score 16-8 after the fifth.

7th | In the bottom of the inning, Rasbeary lead off with a walk, followed by Whelton reaching on a hit-by-pitch, and Obregon reaching on a walk to load the bases. Gonzales with the bases juiced and no outs, hit a sac fly to deep center field to plate Rasbeary and advanced Whelton to third. Then Johnson was hit-by-pitch to load the bases once again, this time for Kale Breaux who hit the walk-off single up the middle to end the game due to run rule and put the score at 18-8.

MCNEESE NOTES
Offense:
The Cowboys as a team exploded offensively, scoring 18 runs on 17 hits, six of those being extra base hits., and the team tied a record of most home runs in a game with five (Whelton, Dickerson, Obregon III, Johnson, and Rasbeary).

Every Cowboy in the lineup had at least one hit and one RBI in the game, three Cowboys had three hits in the game (Dickerson, Obregon III, Breaux), and two players had two hits (Bourque and Fisbeck).

Dickerson lead the team with four RBI’s and Obregon III was only a triple away from the cycle.

Pitching:
Cameron Foster got the start for the Cowboys in game one Sunday, finishing with 2.2 IP, gave up 5 runs on 4 hits and three walks.

Foster was relieved by senior Daniel Hecker with two outs in the third and would go on to pitch 2.0 innings and surrender 3 runs on one hit, three walks, and earn his first win of the season.

Kevin Roliard relieved Hecker with two outs in the fifth and pitched the remainder of the game, throwing 2.1 innings, allowed only two hits, zero runs, and struck out one batter.

GAME 2 vs VALPO

KEY INNINGS
1st | In the bottom of the inning, Payton Harden lead off with an infield single to the second baseman, stole second, and then made it home on Fisbeck’s RBI single up the middle to take the early 1-0 lead after the first.

2nd | In the bottom of the inning, after two fly outs to right field, Schuyler Thibodaux singled to left and Payton Harden doubled to left, giving Dickerson two on in scoring position with two outs. Dickerson then hit a two-RBI infield single to the second baseman to extend the Cowboy lead to 3-0 after the second.

3rd | In the third, the Cowboys extended their lead to 6-0 after scoring three in the inning. Rasbeary lead off with a walk and then came around to score on Obregon III’s double to right center, he made it to third on the play on a throwing error by the center fielder. Obregon then scored on a sac fly by Gonzlales to right field to make it 5-0. Now with two outs, Welles Cooley reached on a single to the outfield, stole second base, and then after a Thibodaux walk was brought home on a RBI single by Harden to end the Cowboys scoring for the inning.

4th | In the top of the inning, Valparaiso scored two runs on a single and home run to make the score 6-2 after the fourth inning.

5th | In the bottoo of the inning, Cooley reached on a single and then was brought all the way home from first on Harden’s RBI-triple down the left field line to extend the Cowboys lead to 7-2 after the fifth.

6th | In the top of the inning, the Crusaders scored one run one on three hits to make it 7-3.

In the Cowboy half, Fisbeck reached base on a infield single made it to second when Rasbeary reached on an error, advanced to third on a fly out and then stole home on a double steal to plate the Cowboys lone run of the inning, bringing the score to it’s final 8-3.

MCNEESE NOTES
Offense:
The Cowboys were led offensively by Payton Harden, going 4-for-5 from the plate with two singles, a double, and a triple. He also ended the game with two runs scored, two RBI’s and had a stolen base.

The only other Cowboys to get multiple hits in the game were Nate Fisbeck and Welles Cooley, each of which went 2-for-4.

Pitching:
Kale Breaux got the start for the Cowboys in game two oon Sunday, finishing with 4.0 IP, and only gave up two runs on two hits, and struck out six batters, five of them looking, to earn his first win of the season.

He would be relieved by freshman Isaac Duplechain to begin the bottom of the fifth. Duplechain would finish the game with 2.0 IP, give up one unearened run on three hits and struck out four batters.

Adam Goree relieved Duplechain to begin the top of the seventh for his season debut. Goree finished with 2.0 IP, no runs, no hits, and one strikeout.

Goree was then relieved by Hunter Reeves to begin the ninth. Reeves went three up three down in the inning to end the game, allowing no runs, no hits, no walks, and struck out two of the three batters.

QUOTES

C/DH Tre Obregon III

“First off I want to give thanks to my lord and savior for giving me the ability to wake up every day and play this game with these guys, I have great teammates. I know I haven’t been in the lineup every day but I know that when coach calls my number he believes in me”

“I wanted to come out and be aggressive at the plate and I did that, I trust in my preparation leading up to the game and tonight I got some good pitches to hit and just squared them up.”

OF/LHP Kale Breaux

“Tonight was a special night for me for sure, I showed up to the park today and saw that I was going to be starting in the nine hole at center field against a good Southern Miss team, my first start in field as a collegiate baseball player, pretty surreal.”

Head Coach Justin Hill

“It’s never easy to bounce back after you get it taken to you, but I think Cameron (Foster) started offokay but kind of lost the strike zone which let them get to 4-2. Daniel (Hecker) came in and shut it down and was able to get us a zero right there in the fourth then the offense came alive.”

“What a great dy by Kale Breaux huh, got his first collegiate start in the outfield and goes three-for-five with a couple RBI’s and then comes out and gets the start in the second game, kind of sandlot style.”

“I’m proud of our guys, Reid Bourque coming back, Schuyler Thibodaux catching two games in a weekend since going down with that hip injury last season, Welles Cooley coming back from concussion, so many guys did so many special things this weekend to prove why I think this team is special and I think they are going to continue to grow and get better as the season goes on.”

ON DECK
The Cowboys will gbe back at home come next weekend when theyplay host to the UL-Monroe Warhawks in a three-game weekend series.