Cowboys release baseball schedule

LAKE CHARLES – McNeese baseball coach Justin Hill announced the Cowboys' 2014 schedule on Wednesday. The 55-game slate includes five opponents that took part in last season's NCAA Tournament. 

McNeese will open the season with eight straight home games including a three-game series against Chicago State to begin the season on Feb. 14.  The Cowboys will host a total of 29 games at Cowboy Diamond in 2014.

“Our pre-conference schedule will be a great challenge for our club,” said Hill, who enters his first season as Cowboys head coach. “We will be playing some very good teams to start the season. Fortunately, we will play most of those games at Cowboy Diamond.”

Among the Cowboys' non-conference highlights are three-game home series against Texas Arlington (Feb. 21-23) and Valparaiso (Feb. 28-Mar. 2).  McNeese will also travel to Houston to take on the Cougars on Feb. 26 and will meet UH in Lake Charles on April 29.

McNeese faces in-state rivals Louisiana Tech in a two-game series in Ruston (Mar. 4-5), LSU in Baton Rouge on April 2 and will have a home-and-home series with Louisiana Lafayette in Lake Charles on April 9 and in Lafayette on April 22.

McNeese will open Southland Conference play March 14 against Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches. The Cowboys’ first conference home series will be the following weekend when Oral Roberts comes to town.

In SLC action, McNeese will also host Houston Baptist, Northwestern State, Incarnate Word and Southeastern Louisiana while having road series at Lamar, Central Arkansas, New Orleans and Nicholls State.

“As always, we expect the Southland Conference to be a week-in and week-out battle that will go down to the last weekend,” said Hill.

The Southland Conference Baseball Championship will be held at Bear Stadium on the campus of Central Arkansas in Conway on May 21-24.