March 30, 2006

McNeese State's baseball team will be out to snap a tie for fifth place in the Southland Conference standings when the Cowboys travel to San Antonio to play UT San Antonio in a three game league series beginning Friday.

The two teams have games set for 3 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Radio station KAOK will carry the action on Saturday and Sunday.

Both McNeese and UTSA are 3-3 in league play and are tied for the fifth spot. Overall the Cowboys are 15-9 and have won six of their last seven games. UTSA stands 15-10 overall.

UT Arlington, who the Cowboys will host in a couple of weeks, leads the conference with a 7-0 record while Lamar and Sam Houston State are at 7-2 and Texas State stands 8-4. Only the top six teams in the final standings qualify for the post season tournament which will be hosted May 24-27 by Lamar in Beaumont, TX.

McNeese's pitching rotation for the series will be Derek Blacksher on Friday, Sam English on Saturday and Chris Denton on Sunday. Blacksher is 3-2 on the season with a 4.17 ERA while English is 3-2 with a 4.22 and Denton is 5-1 with a 2.38 ERA.

The Cowboys also can come with Danny Davis as a closer and in that role he has a 2-0 record, has recorded four saves and has a 1.93 ERA.

In the batting department, third baseman Bryan Cartie leads the team with a .339 average while centerfielder Charlie Kingrey is hitting .325 with a team high 16 RBIs and catcher Joe Hulett is batting .316.

McNeese expects to get Tyler Dugas off the injured list for the game and prior to being sidelined he was hitting .391 with five RBIs in six games.

Michael McKennon is the top batter for UTSA with a .340 mark and five home runs while Josh Ruffin tops the pitching department with a 4-1 mark and a 2.63 ERA.