McNeese State University’s baseball team lost its series finale against Houston Christian University (HCU) on Saturday, with a final score of 12-4. The result leaves both teams at 8-8 overall, but HCU now holds a 4-2 record in the Southland Conference compared to McNeese’s 3-3. With this win, HCU secured the series victory by two games to one.
The game began positively for McNeese when Matt Stancliff hit his third home run of the season in the first inning, giving the Cowboys an early lead. However, HCU responded quickly with a three-run second inning that started with a triple by Jackson and continued their momentum in the following innings. In the third inning, Castilleja hit a two-run homer and Curtis added a solo home run to push HCU’s lead to 6-1.
HCU kept up its offensive pressure in the fourth inning, scoring three more runs with help from a Hendricks double and another single by Castilleja. The Cowboys managed to respond in their half of the fourth as Simon Larranaga doubled to bring home Marcus Heausohn.
The fifth inning saw HCU extend its lead again with another solo home run. Seth Fontenot gave McNeese fans something to cheer about with his first homer of the season, sending it over the left field wall.
In the eighth inning, HCU scored twice more before Viggo Lopez hit his first home run of the year for McNeese in what would be their last tally of the day.
HCU’s starting pitcher Smith earned his second win of the season after pitching six innings and allowing three runs on six hits while walking one and striking out five batters. On McNeese’s side, Garett Blanchard was credited with his second loss after giving up five runs on six hits over just over two innings.
Looking ahead, McNeese will face UL-Lafayette away on March 11 before playing Lamar University in a conference series starting March 13. The March schedule includes several key conference matchups for both teams.
