With their longest road trip of the season in the rearview mirror, the McNeese State baseball team will begin its first home series in three weeks at 6 p.m. today in the first game of a series against Southland Conference foe Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
After losing two of three to Sam Houston State last weekend, the first-place Cowboys (30-13, 19-5 SLC) are in the midst of a dogfight for the SLC regular-season championship with the Bearkats and a number of other opponents right on their heels.
“You always want to play your best baseball at the end of the year,” Hill said. “The only thing that we can control, from a coaching standpoint, with finals and everything coming up. … We just have to make sure our guys are staying fresh.”
To do that, Hill and the coaching staff gave the Cowboys a light week with no practice on Monday or Wednesday with a light Thursday workout.
Hill said he trusts his team knows what it has to do to be successful against the Islanders (15-30, 7-14), who have lost 11 of their last 13 games.
“We know what we have to do to prepare,” he said.
McNeese enters having lost two conference series and controlling its destiny.
With two SLC series remaining on its schedule, a sweep or a series win would go a long way in putting the Cowboys in an advantageous position going into the SLC tournament.
“This weekend, everybody who is in the mix will be playing,” Hill said. “We’re excited.”
Lefty ace Austin Sanders (5-2, 3.60 ERA) will get the start on the mound tonight for McNeese.
He struggled last Friday as he gave up five runs, four earned and seven hits in two innings in McNeese’s 10-9 loss to Sam Houston State.
Sanders will pitch opposite right-handed pitcher Dustin Lacaze (2-2, 5.62), a redshirt freshman who has emerged as the Islanders’ Friday starter.
Shane Selman leads the Cowboys with a .359 batting average and a .670 slugging percentage. He and Matt Gallier lead the team with 11 home runs apiece.
“This series is going to be huge,” Hill said. “Every series is magnified. Even though the ones early in the season count as much as the games late, I thought our kids did a good job of taking advantage the opportunities they had early. We have (TAMU-CC) coming in. Our guys are ready to be home and play again.”
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