LAKE CHARLES – The Northwestern State baseball team's search for its first road Southland Conference sweep in more than six years could not have started better Sunday afternoon. 
 
Six batters into the game, the Demons led homestanding McNeese by four runs and appeared poised to take all three games from a conference opponent for the first time since doing so in 2016 at Nicholls. 
 
The Demons' fast start, however, did not last as the Cowboys bullpen tossed eight innings of shutout ball, allowing McNeese's offense to enjoy a mid-game awakening in a 10-4 Cowboy victory at Joe Miller Ballpark. 
 
Despite the loss, the Demons (23-24, 11-10) earned their second conference road series win of the season and will enter the final weekend of the regular season as one of four teams one game behind a conference co-leaders Southeastern and McNeese. 
 
"It was a tough matchup for us today," sixth-year head coach Bobby Barbier said. "Drayton (Brown) is a flyball guy. That's what he does – gets a lot of flyball outs. You've got a park that plays really small with the wind howling out. That's tough, but that's how we got our runs, too. It's a learning experience. 
 
"Overall, we had a really good weekend. We played hard again today. It just didn't work out." 
 
Bo Willis' second home run of the weekend – a three-run, first-inning shot to left – backed up Gabe Colaianni's RBI double and gave NSU its second multi-run first inning of the series after a three-run first Friday.  
 
That turned out to be the extent of the Demon offense Sunday. 
 
Left-hander Zane Zeppuhar (1-0) relieved starter Andrew Sheridan after one inning and spun 5 2-3 innings of shutout, one-hit relief with six strikeouts, giving McNeese (27-21, 12-9) a chance to solve Brown (5-5).  
 
Brown spun two scoreless innings to start, including a nine-pitch first inning, before Cooper Hext led off the third with a solo home run. 
 
Hext's second home run of the season woke up the Cowboys' bats as McNeese connected for four home runs off Brown in 4 2-3 innings. The final two homers came in a four-batter span in the fifth inning with two outs that turned the game in McNeese's favor. 
 
After recording his first 12 outs by either strikeout or fly out, Brown induced his first groundball out – a double-play grounder off the bat of Braden Duhon – to erase Nate Collins' leadoff single in the fifth. 
 
Reid Bourque's solo home run tied the game and started a four-batter stretch in which the Cowboys had a pair of singles and a pair of home runs, capped by Josh Leslie's second two-run home run in as many innings that gave McNeese a 7-4 lead, its first multi-run advantage of the series. 
 
McNeese added two more runs in the sixth before Alex Makarewich entered and delivered another standout performance from a Demon reliever. 
 
Makarewich inherited a 1-0 count on Kade Morris and struck him and Brad Burckel to strand a pair of runners. A sophomore right-hander from Keller Texas, Makarewich struck out four of the five Cowboys he faced Sunday, throwing 14 of his 19 pitches for strikes.  
 
Makarewich's performance backed up strong Saturday relief work from Cameron Taylor, Andrew Cossio and Donovan Ohnoutka in NSU's 10-inning victory. 
 
"Alex was phenomenal," Barbier said. "Hopefully, he can take that and run with it. He was dominant in the five outs he got. If he keeps doing that, it shores up a lot of things for us. 
 
"There are a lot of things we can build on (from this weekend). We had good starts again. Guys pitched well out of the bullpen. Guys got big hits. In 2018, we had a similar situation. We went and beat Incarnate Word two of three and got the momentum going. We have to come out and play hard and play well again the next time we play or practice." 
 
The Demons return to action Tuesday when they host ULM in the final home mid-week game of the season. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field. 
 
McNeese 10, Northwestern State 4 
NSU       400 000 000 – 4 6 0 
McNeese            001 242 01x – 10 12 1 
W – Zane Zeppuhar (1-0). L – Drayton Brown (5-5). 2B – NSU, Jake Haze, Gabe Colaianni. McN, Cooper Hext. HR – NSU, Bo Willis (9). McN, Reid Bourque (4), Josh Leslie 2 (6), Hext (2). Highlights: NSU, Colaianni 2-3, 2B, RBI. McN, Braden Duhon 2-5, RBI; Bourque 2-5, HR, 2 RBIs; Leslie 2-3, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs; Hext 2-3, 2B, HR, RBI. 
Records: Northwestern State 23-24, 11-10; McNeese 27-21, 12-9.