McNeese baseball struggles in game one vs. Miami of Ohio

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - After falling to LSU in Baton Rouge on Tuesday night, the McNeese baseball team was back in action Wednesday night when they played host to the Miami of Ohio Redhawks in Lake Charles.

Unfortunately for McNeese, Wednesday night’s game started similarly to Tuesday night’s game in Baton Rouge; poorly, but Wednesday night was worse. McNeese fell behind in the first inning after Miami’s Ryland Zaborowski singled through the left side of the infield bringing in a run to make it 1-0, but in the second inning, it really fell apart for the Pokes.

The Redhawks brought in eight runs in the second inning alone to make it 9-0 through two innings of action as Benji Brokemond, Tommy Harrison, and Zach MacDonald all recorded RBIs, blowing the game wide open.

In the bottom half of the second McNeese got one back as Kade Hunter brought in Tre Obregon III with a sacrifice fly, but then Redhawk runs in the third and fourth made it 11-1, bringing the run-rule into play if McNeese didn’t put some offense together by the seventh inning.

Luckily for McNeese, they were able to avoid being run-ruled for the first time this year as Braley Hollins hit his second home run of the year in the fourth, and then Brad Burckel, and Obregon both recorded RBIs, while Hunter, and Chase Keeton scored on a fielder’s choice, and a balk, but the Pokes weren’t able to do enough to mount a comeback.

In the end, Miami of Ohio added three more runs to McNeese’s two as the Redhawks would go onto take game one of the three-game series.

“It was good to see the offense kind of get going a little bit, but there’s no consolation prize for that, that’s kind of the way they are, whether it be 1-0 or 10, whatever, we just want to find a way to win the game,” said Cowboys’ head coach Justin Hill following the loss. “It’s no secret, I don’t think we’re in a position where we wanted to be from a conference standpoint. Overall, we’ve had a really good season from an overall standpoint, but you know, we would’ve traded some of those wins for Southland Conference wins. I think there’s a little bit of frustration and any time you have that, any time you have a goal, have aspirations, you sometimes need a reset.”

McNeese will look to put Wednesday’s loss behind them when they take on Miami of Ohio once again on Thursday, at 6:00.

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