CORPUS CHRISTI, TX – McNeese State belted three home runs and broke out of a five  game losing streak with a 14-4, seven inning victory over TAM-Corpus Christi here Friday in Southland Conference play.

    Shon Landry, Taylor Freeman and Ryan Brauninger all smacked round trippers as the Cowboys improved to 10-9 on the season and to 2-5 in league play.  The Islanders fell to 6-16 overall and are still winless in SLC play in six outings.

    Lefthander Tyler Davis hurled 5.2 innings and collected the pitching victory for McNeese, his third against two losses.  He gave up five hits, three earned runs, walked five and struckout one.

    Scott Holstein and Ryan Frantz pitched in relief of Davis.  Holstein came on in the sixth to get the final out on a strikeout and Frantz hurled a one hit, one run seventh inning.

    McNeese was up 5-0 after two innings, scored one run in the fifth, two in the sixth and then six in the seventh that enabled the game to go to the mercy rule.  The Islanders got three runs in the sixth and one in the seventh.

    A double by Lee Orr plated two of the Cowboys first inning runs and a single by Nick Eubanks added the third.

    In the second, Steven Irvine doubled in a run and Landry belted his fourth home run of the season.

    Freeman collected his third home run in the fifth, a solo shot.  Matt Fontenot doubled in a run in the sixth and a second scored on an error.

    In the six run seventh,  Brauninger drove in two runs with his third homer of the year.

    The Islanders had one home run, that a three runner off the bat of Todd Hernandez in the  sixth.

    The Cowboys got back to their hitting ways in this game as they collected 17 hits of which eight of them were extra base knocks.  Landry, Freeman and Brauninger all had three hits in the game while Eubanks and Andy Riche’ had two each.  Only one player who went to the plate for the Cowboys failed to get a hit.

    Billy Orr, who started for TAM-Corpus, went 4.1 innings and absorbed the loss, giving up eight hits and six runs.

    The two teams play another game beginning at 2 p.m. on Saturday and wrap up their series with a 1 p.m. contest on Sunday.