SAN MARCOS, TX - McNeese State’s Cowboys were lapped in their second baseball game with Texas State, the Bobcats posting a 16-6 victory in seven innings on Saturday.

    They will conclude their series with a single game beginning at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

    The Bobcats, the Southland Conference leaders, tagged four Cowboy pitchers for 15 hits which included three home runs as they ran their record to 30-10 overall and to 17-5 in league play.

    McNeese fell to 19-20 overall and to 8-15 in conference action.

    The Bobcats scored first with one run in the first inning (an unearned run), added three in the third, one in the fourth, sixth in the fifth and five in the seventh.

    The Cowboys, who had nine hits in the game, scored two runs in the third and fifth innings and one in the fourth.

    Taylor Freeman and Andy Riche’ belted home runs for the Cowboys and drove in five of the six runs.

    Freeman’s ninth home run of the season drove in both runs in the third inning for the Cowboys while Riche’ second home run plated two runs in the fifth.

    The other McNeese score came with Freeman driving in Sam Merrill,  who had doubled and then gone to third on a fly ball to center, with an infield ground out.

    McNeese starter Matt Click hurled 3.1 innings , giving up six hits and five runs.  Tommy Luce pitched the next 3.1 innings and gave up seven hits and 10 runs, six of them earned.  He was tagged with the loss as the Cowboys had tied the score in the top of the fifth inning.

    Jaden Dillon and Todd Fontenot finished up on the mound with the game ending with two outs and two runners left on base in the bottom of the seventh.
    In this game the Cowboys left 11 batters on base.

    Merrill and Steven Irvine were the only McNeese hitters to collected more than one hit in the contest, both getting a pair.  Designated hitter Ryan Brauninger went one for three and extended his hitting streak to 18 games.

    Zack Tritz won his sixth game going five innings and giving up six hits and five runs.

    Belting home runs for the Bobcats were Tyler Sibley, Keith Prestridge and Ben Theriot.