Published: March 09, 2007
LAKE CHARLES, La.
McNeese State (3-14) broke open a tie game with a five-run sixth
inning and went on to beat St. John's (3-8), 11-4, in the opener of
a three-game series at Cowboy Diamond on Thursday night. MSU
outfielder Charlie Kingrey blasted two home runs and the Cowboys
pounded out a season-high 14 hits en route to their third home win
in four tries.
Senior
Ryan Mahoney homered for the third consecutive game, giving the
Red Storm a 4-3 lead in the fourth inning with his team-leading
fifth long ball of the year. Classmate
Brendan Monaghan went 3-for-3 with an RBI, and junior
Jeff Grantham doubled twice and drove in two runs to lead the
offense.
Junior
Matt Tosoni went 3.2 innings, allowing six hits and four runs
(one earned) and striking out one before being chased in the
fourth. Freshman
Nick Cenatiempo took the loss in relief of Tosoni, allowing
four hits and four runs in his two innings of work.
Cowboys starter Chris Denton threw 131 pitches – 85 for strikes
– and came within an out of a complete game. Denton went 8.2
innings, allowing 11 hits and four runs and striking out six before
being relieved by Justin LeBleu in the ninth.
The teams traded three-run innings – the Cowboys in the bottom
of the first, the Red Storm in the top of the second – in the early
part of the game to leave the game deadlocked at 3-3 after two
innings. McNeese State followed a St. John's fielding error with a
pair of singles, a balk and a two-run squeeze play to jump out to a
quick 3-0 lead.
In the Red Storm second, singles by
Anthony Smith and
Gil Zayas put runners on first and second for Monaghan, who
ripped a single into left field to score Smith. Grantham then
plated two more runs with a double to deep right field to collect
his first two RBI of the season.
Mahoney hit a deep blast to right-center field in the third to
quickly give St. John's its first lead of the game, but it was
short-lived as the Cowboys rallied for a score in the bottom half
of the inning.
After two scoreless frames, MSU retook the lead, 9-4, with four
hits and five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Kingrey put
an exclamation point on the big inning with an opposite-field,
two-run home run over the scoreboard in left field.
Kingrey added another two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth
inning, his sixth of the year, to stretch the MSU lead to 11-4 -
the eventual final score.
The teams meet again on Friday at 7 p.m. (8 p.m. EST) in Game
Two of the series. Red Storm LHP
Scott Barnes (1-1, 5.06 ERA) is scheduled to take the mound
against Cowboys RHP Derek Blacksher (0-2, 4.44 ERA).