Four-Run McNeese Ninth Dooms 'Jacks in 5-1 Loss to Cowboys

Sunday, March 18

Nacogdoches, Texas

11:00 a.m.

Stephen F. Austin

4-14, 0

McNeese

8-11, 0

McNeese

Stephen F. Austin

Photo by: Cody Derouen | SFA Athletics

Four-Run McNeese Ninth Dooms 'Jacks in 5-1 Loss to Cowboys

3/18/2018 3:13:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

'Jacks swept by Cowboys, all of game's six runs come in final three innings

By: Charlie Hurley | Director of Athletic Media Relations

NACOGODCHES, Texas - For six innings, the Stephen F. Austin baseball team found itself locked in a pitcher's duel with visiting McNeese at Jaycees Field, but when offense of any kind was finally unearthed it came courtesy of the Cowboys.

McNeese broke a scoreless tie with a run scoring single in the seventh and added four more in the top of the ninth as the 'Jacks fell to the Cowboys, 5-1, Sunday afternoon.

Senior Trevor Kiminski put his squad in excellent position to earn their first Southland Conference win of the season by tossing 5.1 frames of scoreless, two-hit baseball before giving way to Jesus Gamez in the sixth. SFA's relief arm kept the Cowboys off the board by delivering a strikeout and a flyout to strand a pair of runners in the sixth before Gamez's leadoff walk in the seventh turned into the game's first run.

Dustin Duhon took first on five pitches and after a sacrifice bunt by Julian Gonzalez moved Duhon to second. Gamez struck out Mitch Rogers on five pitches before Carson Maxwell punched an RBI single up the middle that handed the Cowboys a 1-0 lead.

Through the first five innings, SFA put just four men in scoring position and in McNeese starter Tyler Wesley's 5.2 innings of work he struck out six and walked only one while giving up six hits.

Tyler Starks came on in the eighth and escaped a bases-loaded situation by getting Jake Cochran to ground into an inning-ending double play. That sure-handed defensive play kept the 'Jacks well within striking distance in the bottom of the frame.

Josh Evans ripped a two-out double to the gap in left center before Vasquez drew an intentional walk to put runners on first and second for Eric DeJesus. The senior got a piece of Anderson's 1-0 offering but the liner to shallow left center hung in the air just lone enough for Shane Selman to end the 'Jacks' threat with a tumbling inning-end grab.

Upon returning to the pitching rubber in the ninth, Starks sat down the first man he faced on three pitches before things went south. A four-pitch walk handed out to Julian Gonzalez followed with a two-out plunking of the Cowboys' Carson Maxwell placed runners on the corners and after Maxwell swiped second leadoff man Reid Bourque sent a two-hopper high over the head of DeJesus at second that scored two runs and upped the Cowboys' lead to 3-0.

Selman delivered the knockout blow during the very next at-bat when his fly ball to left sailed just over the fence for a two-run homer that put SFA in a 5-0 hole.

Nick Daley's two-out walk in the ninth turned into the 'Jacks' sole run of the afternoon after Jake Georgiades brought the junior home with a single to right. That RBI single off the bat of Georgiades was one of just two hits McNeese relief arm Aiden Anderson (2-4) gave up in 3.1 innings en route to earning the win.

Manny Vasquez finished the day with a perfect 3-for-3 outing at the plate which was his first three-hit performance in an SFA uniform. Evans and Georgiades each added two hits apiece for SFA in its third-straight setback.

For McNeese, the top of the Cowboys' order did the vast majority of the damage. Selman (3-for-3, two RBI) and Bourque (2-for-5, two RBI) finished with five of McNeese's six hits and drove in four of their squad's five runs on the afternoon.

Two of the 'Jacks' five games in the next seven days are non-conference tilts and the first one of this will take place in Prairie View, Texas, at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday afternoon when SFA takes on Prairie View A&M.

-SFA-