McNeese baseball will start a 10-game homestand by hosting Prairie View A&M in Lake Charles on March 17, with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
The matchup marks an important stretch for the Cowboys, who currently hold a record of 9-10 overall and 4-5 in conference play. The team is looking to rebound after dropping two out of three games to Lamar over the weekend, during which they scored a total of 13 runs on 18 hits, including three doubles and one triple. Jake Blackwell earned his second win of the season in Friday’s opener, while Brady Corcoran recorded his second save.
Prairie View A&M enters the contest with a record of 4-14 overall and is winless in conference play at 0-3. The Panthers are currently on a seven-game losing streak dating back to March 6 against Sam Houston and have allowed a total of 71 runs over their last seven games while scoring just 20.
In recent meetings between the two teams, McNeese has won all five matchups, including their most recent game on March 3, when they secured a narrow 5-4 victory at home. Key players for McNeese include Danny Barbero, who leads the team in batting average at just under .400 and enters the game with a five-game hitting streak. Matt Stancliff has reached base in eight consecutive games and leads the team with twelve stolen bases this season. Both Barbero and Stancliff have hit three home runs each so far this year.
On the pitching side, Eric Nachtsheim leads McNeese with forty-five strikeouts across six appearances but picked up his first loss of the season over the weekend to move to a record of three wins and one loss. The Cowboys’ pitching staff has totaled one hundred ninety-nine strikeouts in one hundred sixty-eight innings pitched this season.
Head Coach Justin Hill is entering his thirteenth season leading McNeese baseball and holds school records for both overall wins (365) and conference victories (180). This year’s roster features twenty returning players from last season as well as twenty-one newcomers from various colleges and high schools. Three opponents on McNeese’s schedule advanced to NCAA Regionals last year: Kansas, Houston Christian, and LSU—the latter winning the College World Series against Coastal Carolina.
The upcoming homestand represents an opportunity for McNeese to improve its standing before resuming further conference play.
