Terry Burrows, who played and coached at McNeese State University and who had an 11 year professional career as a player, has been named the Cowboys new head baseball coach.

McNeese interim athletic director Tommy McClelland made the announcement of Burrows selection Thursday afternoon.

"We had 28 candidates ," McClelland said. "And, Terry was the one we wanted. He has the credentials, having played and coached on the collegiate level and having played professionally. He has a commitment to this area and to McNeese State."

Burrows replaces Chad Clement who had resigned as the Cowboy head coach five games into the 2007 season. Assistant coach Chris Fackler was appointed interim head coach for the remainder of the year.

The 39 year old Burrows most recently served as head coach at St.Louis High in Lake Charles where he coached the team to its first district title in 10 years.

Prior to that he had served as an assistant coach both at McNeese State and at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. At St.Louis he had seven players go on to sign college scholarships while at Louisiana-Monroe he helped develop a staff that had five pitchers selected in the major league draft.

As an assistant coach at McNeese, Burrows helped a pitching staff that won a Southland Conference tournament and participated in the NCAA regional tournament.

"This is the job I wanted," Burrows said. "This is my home. I could have probably gone anywhere after my professional career but this is where I wanted to be."

The left handed Burrows had an 11 year professional career, compiling a 4-4 won-lost record while recording two saves in the major leagues with Texas, Milwaukee and San Diego. He also played in Japan, Mexico and Venezuela.

As a collegiate pitcher for the Cowboys, he was named the player of the year in the Southland Conference in 1990 when he posted a 10-3 won-lost record along with a 1.58 ERA. During a two year career at McNeese, Burrows won 15 games. He still holds the school record for most strikeouts in a nine inning game (19 vs Louisiana-Lafayette in 1990) and 15 strikeouts in a seven inning game (vs Louisiana College in 1989).

Burrows was drafted by the Texas Rangers following his junior year.

He holds a bachelor of science degree from McNeese, is married to the former Lynne Huddelston and the couple has three children.