LAKE CHARLES, La. – The McNeese baseball team (4-4) concluded a four-game series over New Mexico State (2-6) with a sweep after a 6-5 victory at Joe Miller Ballpark Monday afternoon.
 
"After a tough start, I felt the guys responded really well," said head coach Justin Hill about the weekend. He went on to mention saying, "Gravel has some swing-and miss stuff. I thought he responded really well after the first inning."
 
The opening batter for the Aggies hit a home run to left center for an early 1-0 advantage for New Mexico State that would last two innings.
 
In the third at-bat of the third inning, junior Conner Westenburg collected the second hit of the game with a three-run home run blast out of left field. Redshirt freshman Easton Dowell and senior Parker Stroh scored one the blast for a 3-1 McNeese lead.
 
Coming off a hot third, the Cowboys carried the blazing bats into the fourth to score two more runs to earn a 5-1 lead. Dowell doubled with two outs on the board to bring in senior Braden Duhon in the fourth at-bat of the half inning. Dowell came in to plate a run himself on a single by Cooper Hext, a senior, the fifth RBI of the performance.
 
Four unanswered runs were scored between the fifth and sixth inning for the Aggies before McNeese plated a run of its own in the bottom of the sixth. Westenburg got his second run of the game as he came in on an RBI single hit by Hext to score the final run of the game.

Junior Alexis Gravel earned the start for the Cowboys, throwing five innings, only allowing five hits and two runs. He struck out a career high eight batters to leave his mark on the game before redshirt junior Marcus Mott entered in relief. Mott threw for an inning before senior JT Moeller came in for two effective innings of relief.
 
Moeller was credited with the victory, throwing two inning sand allowing only one hit while striking out two batters. Classmate Kainin Morrow earned the save after pitching the final inning at the park.

Chase Keeton, a redshirt senior, was one of three batters to hit 3-for-four on the day with Dowell and Duhon joining him at the .750 batting mark. Dowell earned two runs with a run batted in while Duhon scored a run as well.

Hext collected two hits in three at-bats for McNeese with Westenburg getting a hit and scoring two runs.

McNeese is scheduled for a day of rest before facing Louisiana Tech (7-0) at Joe Miller Ballpark Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m.