McNeese head baseball coach Justin Hill said he expects a packed Joe Miller Ballpark this evening when the Cowboys host in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette at 6 p.m.
The Cowboys (18-6, 9-0 SLC) are yet to lose a game at home this season and have won 16 straight games at the Jeaux dating back to last season, including a win against LSU less than a month ago.
They now hope to extend that streak into the first game of a home-and-home series against one of the program’s oldest rivals UL-L (13-9, 4-2 Sun Belt Conference) coached by a familiar face in former McNeese player and head coach Tony Robichaux.
“Coach Robichaux, this is where he cut his teeth coaching,” Hill said. “This is where he had his first job. As a McNeese graduate, he’s always been so good to McNeese. He’s come here and played every year, and we’ve had a great home-and-home series.
“We’ve had some really good games, some fun games to watch both here and in Lafayette. We expect a good crowd. They’re obviously still ranked and we’ve been playing good baseball, so I think we can draw a good crowd.”
McNeese enters the game featuring some of the hottest bats in the country.
The Cowboys have earned a team batting average of .331 with eight regular starters with a hitting clip above .300.
Lead-off batter Robbie Podorsky has been as consistent as they come, currently riding a 17-game hit streak with a .350 batting average on the season.
“He’s been hitting lead-off every single game,” Hill said. “When he gets on base, he makes our offense go. He does a great job of putting pressure on defense and putting pressure on the pitcher and he’s one of the fastest guys in America.”
Hill said he plans to start Aiden Anderson on the mound, who has earned a 2-1 record and an 8.79 ERA in 8 appearances and 14.1 innings pitched.
He added that he has no pitch-count in mind for Anderson and that the amount of time he spends on the mound largely depends on how well he’s pitching.
“We’re not going to throw him so much that he won’t be available for the weekend,” Hill said. “But he will have the ball, and we want him to at least try to get down to the bullpen.”
The Ragin’ Cajuns are expected to start right-handed pitcher Jack Burk against McNeese.
Despite an 0-3 record, Burk has allowed only six earned runs while tallying 18 strikeouts with two walks in 20 innings pitched.
The last time the two teams played, McNeese walked away with its first victory against the Ragin’ Cajuns since 2010. Now, Hill hopes he has built a program that can regularly compete with its rival.
“It’s always fun when you play a team that you have respect for,” Hill said. “You know they’re going to play the game right and hard. They’re talented.
“Any time that you’re ready to play and our opponent is ready to play, there’s an excitement and an energy in the air. Our kids have played in a lot of those games this year. … I know they’ll be ready.”
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