LAKE CHARLES - The No. 1 seeded McNeese Cowboy's (33-21) postseason winning streak continued as the Pokes emerged victorious over No. 8 Incarnate Word (21-31) 7-2 Saturday night at Joe Miller Ballpark to advance to the Southland Conference Championship Series. Christian Vega, Zane Zepphuar, and Tyler Stone combined to two hit the Cardinals as McNeese will play for a third-straight conference title May 26-28 at Joe Miller Ballpark against the winner of the Hammond Bracket.
The Pokes got a remarkable long-relief outing from Tyler Stone as he struck out a season-high eight batters in three innings of work to earn his first save of the year. Stone allowed just one hit and entered in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and struck out the side.
"I gave it everything I got. This is what we needed, guys to step up at the right time," said Tyler Stone.
Zane Zeppuhar improved to 2-0 on the year with two innings of no-hit ball and Christian Vega threw 4.0 innings of one-hit ball in his first start since at LSU (March 6).
UIW grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when Hernan Yanez hit a sac-fly to center field scoring Jimmy De Leon.
The Cowboys scored one run in the fourth, fifth, and sixth to take a 3-2 lead. Julian Gonzales delivered an RBI single in the fourth, Kade Morris smoked his team-leading 10th home run of the season in the fifth, and Kade Hunter walked, advanced to third on Brad Burckel's single, and scored on a wild pitch.
McNeese extended the lead to 4-2 after Payton Harden smacked an RBI single up the middle to score Reid Bourque (BB). The hit was the 245th in the career of Harden, he now ranks third on the program's all-time hit list behind Joe Provenzano (2015-18) 254 and Andrew Guillotte (2012-15) 247.
Back-to-back doubles by Brad Burckel and Josh Leslie started a three-run eighth inning that was capped off by Andruw Gonzales' two-run single.
Postgame Video: Justin Hill
Stay Connected:
For live updates and all things Cowboy Baseball, follow the Pokes on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
