Stephen F. Austin
Mcneese State
SFA Picks Up Delayed Win Over Cowboys
4/18/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 18, 2009
LAKE CHARLES, La. - After a 15-hour, 50-minute rain delay the SFA baseball team came out swinging and added three runs in the top of the eighth inning in holding on to a 6-1 win over McNeese State Saturday morning.
SFA (15-21, 7-11 SLC) had led 3-1 behind 6.1 innings from Erich Lehmann on Friday night, but a band of storms rolled through the Lake Charles area and forced the delay of the game in the bottom of the seventh. McNeese (17-17, 6-13 SLC) got a hit from Any Riche' off of Chris Court to start the morning, but Court left him stranded and only allowed one more hit in 2.2 innings of work for his first career save.
The combo of Court and Lehmann held the Cowboys to just seven hits on the afternoon, breaking a 12-game streak for the McNeese offense in which it had at least 10 hits. Lehmann finished with four strikeouts and only one walk in his 6.1 innings, claiming his third straight win to move to 4-3 on the season. With Lehmann's effort he also passed Sean Wood for the all-time innings lead at SFA, now with 304 career innings.
Jonathan Conrad was solid for the Cowboys with seven innings of work before giving way to Tyler Davis on Saturday, but still fell to 2-3 on the year with the loss.
SFA jumped out in front in the first inning after just the first two hitters as Zach Gardner led off with his first double of the day down the right field line and scored when Tanner Hines shot the first of his three singles up the middle for the RBI. Two innings later Gardner made it 2-0 with another leadoff double, this time to the left-center field gap and scored on a grounder from Sean Meyers after a sacrifice bunt from Hines moved him to third.
Shon Landry delivered a two-out single to score Riche' in the fifth and cut the lead in half, but Lehmann was able to retire the next five Cowboys to keep SFA in front through Friday.
The `Jacks had an opportunity on Friday to open up the game, putting runners on second and third with nobody out scoring a run on a muffed throw by Cowboy second baseman Matt Fontenot. But Conrad got Ryan Priest to foul out before walking Jarid Scarafiotti to load the bases, but SFA could not deliver the big hit as Jeffrey Kello popped out and Bo Coffman grounded out to end the frame.
After the delay the `Jacks came out aggressive, getting three runs in the bottom of the eighth to increase the lead to 6-1. Meyers opened up by reaching on an error by Landry at shortstop and came all the way home on a water-logged RBI double from Brian Ferguson into the gap in right-center. Priest then delivered a first-pitch RBI single to make it 5-1 and Bo Coffman brought in pinch runner Luke Baker with a two-out chopper up the middle for his first RBI of the day.
Court then finished it off by setting McNeese down in order in the eighth before striking out his fourth and fifth batters of the morning in the ninth to earn the save.
The `Jacks and Cowboys will attempt to finish the series on Sunday with a doubleheader beginning at 12:00 p.m. Jared West is slated to go for SFA in Game 1 and freshman Brett Rogers is scheduled for the start in Game 2.
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