McNeese State and UT San Antonio tied up in a home run slugfest here Friday with the Roadrunners coming out on top by a 15-10 score in the first game of their three game Southland Conference baseball series.

    A grand slam by the Roadrunners’ Ryan Hutson, one of two home runs for him in the game, in the fifth inning tied the score at 9-9 and then UTSA went on to outscore the Cowboys  6-1 the rest of the way.

    UTSA wound up hitting six home runs and the Cowboys had five, two by catcher Taylor Freeman.

    The loss dropped the Cowboys a step back in their bid to earn a berth in the league’s post season tournament as Stephen F. Austin, which was only three and a half games ahead of McNeese in the standings and in the eighth and final slot for the tournament, upset Southeastern Louisiana on Friday.

    McNeese and UTSA play another single game beginning at 3 p.m. on Saturday and then wrap things uip with a 1 p.m. game on Sunday.

    The Cowboys had taken a 5-1 lead after one inning when Freeman, Nick Eubanks and Lee Orr belted home runs in the opening frame to tie a McNeese single inning home run record.

    In the second inning Hutson and Aaron Powell hit solo home runs to get the Roadrunners within two runs of the Cowboys but then Sam Merrill led off the McNeese half of the inning with a solo shot.

    In the third, Michael Rockett hit a two run homer and UTSA was within one of the Cowboys.

    Freeman hit his second home run of the game in the fourth, a three run shot, to give the Cowboys a 9-5 lead but then Hutson belted his grand slam to tie the score.

    UTSA got three runs in the sixth without a home run, two in the seventh on a two run homer by Jason Mohn and one in the eighth on a home run by Lance Brown.

    McNeese’s only run in the late innings came in the seventh with Steven Irvine singling in Matt Fontenot.

    Reliefers gained the pitching decisions in the game, Matt Crocker taking the victory and lifting his record to 4-1 and Scott Holstein being tagged with the loss and going to 2-6.

    Crocker had relieved starter Red Patterson who pitched 4.2 innings, giving up 11 hits and nine earned runs.  Holstein relieved Tyler Davis who went five innings and gave up nine hits nd nine runs, eight of them earned.

    Crocker pitched 4.1 innings of two hit, one run ball and Holstein went three innings and gave up five hits and six earned runs.  Jaden Dillon finished the game for the Cowboys, tossing goose eggs for one inning.

    UTSA had 14 hits in the game with Rockett and Hutson getting three each while the Cowboys had 13 and Freeman had three hits (two homers and a double) and five RBIs.