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Sports

Hot bats, timely pitching lead Cougars to 12-8 win

Brown retired six batters while Kingsbury blasted 
a double down third in the end

by PATRICK FAIRMAN
The Daily Cougar 

It looked like it might be an early evening home, for both the players and fans, after the first two innings. Though in the end, the Cougars 19-13(5-1) ground out a 12-8 victory over McNeese State 16-12(4-5) with some much needed insurance runs in the eighth. 

The Cougars lead off the game with a 9-0 lead heading into the third inning. McNeese starter junior Chris Denton entered the game with a 5-1 record and a 3.74 era. When he came out of the game after lasting an entire inning and a few batters in the second, he left giving up seven earned runs and with a 5.01 era. During his past two outings Denton has lasted 1 1/3 and has given up 14 runs. 

The hot hitting of the first two innings cooled down after that. Starting pitcher freshman Aaron Brown retired the first six batters he faced in order. When the third inning rolled around, things slowly started to unravel for Brown as McNeese scored three runs in the frame and added four more in the fourth. Five runs were charged to Brown, following two runs were awarded to his relief sophomore Stephen Whalen who lasted 2/3 of an inning. 

Freshman Barry Laird (1-0) then entered in the fourth to take Whalen's place as he got the last out of the inning. He would pitch through the sixth inning for his first decision of the year. 

Over the next five innings the Cougar bats would be silenced to two scattered hits. They had one chance in the fifth when freshman shortstop Travis Cougot singled to left field followed by a chop single by junior center fielder Jake Stewart over sophomore third baseman Bryan Cartie. The Cougars could not capitalize though as they could not in the seventh either with no outs and freshman catcher Luis Flores on first from a walk. Junior first baseman Josh Stirneman attempted a bunt grounding in strait back to the pitcher setting up the double play as McNeese senior reliever Cameron Chandler through to second and then flipped over to first. The Cougars headed into the dramatic eighth inning holding onto a slim 9-7 lead.

In the top half of the 8th inning Kingrey hit a solo homerun off of senior Matt Farrington to pull McNeese within one at 9-8.

It was here that the bats came alive again blowing another three runs on the board. The first run of the rally came on a solo homerun, career number one for senior Matt Weston on a 0-1 pitch that landed over the right field fence. Stewart, who batted 2-for-4 with a RBI followed with a single. Then junior third baseman Dustin Kingsbury who batted 3-for-5 with two RBIs, blasted a double down the third base line. Kingsbury then advanced to third, followed up by a bunt hit by sophomore Bryan Tully that scored Kingsbury from third. 

Flores lead the team with a three runs batted in which came with bases loaded on his seventh double of the year, a blast deep to center clearing a diving attempt by junior Charlie Kingrey. Garcia picked up two RBIs on his fourth triple of the year. Designated hitter junior Brad Lincoln capped off the second inning slugfest with his team leading seventh home run, a two-run bomb deep into the night over the left field fence.

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