Jim Gazzolo

Special to the American Press

If ever a team could use a laugher, it was the Cowboys.

While it wasn’t all chuckles, Tuesday night was at least a comfortable victory for a team coming off a tough weekend.

Still, there were some strange things that again took place at Joe Miller Ballpark as McNeese State ended a 12-game homestand with a 12-5 victory over Southern University.

Led by Braden Duhon’s four hits, the Cowboys pounded out 14 total and received another 10 runners by way of walks from seven Jaguars pitchers.

Josh Leslie and Tré Obregon each extended personal streaks with three hits. The Cowboys (17-8) went 9-3 on the stand and will head back into Southland Conference play this weekend when they travel to play Houston Christian.

Leslie added to his SLC-leading RBI total when he doubled in the third giving him 36 on the season. That also gave him a streak of 17 consecutive games reaching base safely.

Obregon, who was on base four times, extended his streak to 22 games.

However, the strange part of the game was how the Jaguars (7-16) scored their runs.

Southern scored twice in the fourth on back-to-back balks and three times in the seventh without the benefit of a hit. That came after a weekend that saw the Cowboys lose a game to Nicholls State when the potential winning run slipped at third base.

The rare balks cut the McNeese to 3-2. Three walks and an error in the seventh made things a little interesting, as the Cowboys lead was trimmed to 9-5.

The rest of the game was all McNeese, which also used seven pitchers.

J.T. Moeller picked up his first win by working the second and third innings. He allowed one hit and struck out three as McNeese built the lead.

Daren Smith (1-2) took the loss.

Duhon had the biggest of nights for the Cowboys, scoring two runs and driving in two more to go with his four hits. He raised his batting average to .279, up 51 points for the start of the game.

Any chance of a Jaguars comeback ended when the Cowboys scored three times on one hit in the bottom of the eighth. Cooper Hext followed three walks with a single that plated two, and Brad Burckel followed with a sacrifice fly to end the scoring.

McNeese will give the ball to Grant Rogers Friday night. Rogers will go for his seventh win without a loss when he takes on the Huskies.