McNeese Baseball Set For Start of Southland Conference Tournament

Lake Charles, Louisiana (KNGT-FM) - The McNeese State Cowboys still have everything they want to accomplish laid out in front of them within striking distance. When it gets time for the postseason in Baseball, often times its better to be lucky than good. The Cowboys are looking to rekindle some of their mid-season success as the Southland Conference Tournament gets under way.

The Southland Conference Tournament has a new format this year with the top two seeds hosting Pool Play Brackets at their home ballparks. The two winners from the pool play will play a best-of-three series to decide who gets the automatic bid for the Southland Conference to the NCAA Tournament.

This is McNeese’s 23rd time playing in the Southland Tournament and the 13th year in a row they’ve made it. Head coach Justin Hill has led the Cowboys to 11 of those appearances. The Pokes have a solid track record in this tournament, with four championships under their belt, most recently in 2021, which ironically also happened to be in Hammond.

The McNeese Cowboys will face off against the Northwestern State Demons on Thursday at 1:00. This will be the 4th matchup in a row for the Cowboys and Demons as they just wrapped up a series to finish the regular season. Thursday’s game against Northwestern State will be the 13th time these two teams meet in the conference tournament. They’re tied 6-6 in those games. McNeese won the last one, a 10-5 victory in the opening round last year. The Cowboys also lead the all-time series against the Demons, 127-113-2.

The Cowboys will look to rekindle some of the mid-season magic that McNeese had as they kick off the 2025 Southland Conference Tournament at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 15, as the No. 5 seed and face off against No. 4 seed Northwestern State at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field. You can catch the game live on ESPN+.

Here is the complete schedule for the 2025 Southland Conference Tournament:

2025 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament Schedule

Hammond Bracket

Thursday, May 15
Game 1: No. 4 Northwestern State vs. No. 5 McNeese, 1 p.m.
Game 2: No. 1 Southeastern vs. No. 8 New Orleans, 6 p.m.

Friday, May 16
Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 1 p.m.
Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 6 p.m.

Saturday, May 17
Game 5: Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 3, 1 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 6 p.m.

Sunday, May 18
Game 7: Loser Game 6 vs. Winner Game 6, 1 p.m. (if necessary)

Edinburg Bracket

Thursday, May 15
Game 1: No. 3 Lamar vs. No. 6 HCU, 1 p.m.
Game 2: No. 2 UTRGV vs. No. 7 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 6 p.m.

Friday, May 16
Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 1 p.m.
Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 6 p.m.

Saturday, May 17
Game 5: Loser Game 4 vs. Winner Game 3, 1 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5, 6 p.m.

Sunday, May 18
Game 7: Loser Game 6 vs. Winner Game 6, 1 p.m. (if necessary)

Championship Series
Game 1: Thursday, May 22, 6 p.m.
Game 2: Friday, May 23, 6 p.m.
Game 3: Saturday, May 24, 6 p.m. (if necessary)