Box Score LAKE CHARLES – The Northwestern State baseball team is in wait-and-see mode when it comes to its seeding and where it will begin Southland Conference Tournament play.
 
That same approach was not needed Saturday afternoon at Joe Miller Ballpark.
 
Homestanding McNeese took advantage of two first-inning Demon errors and turned it into a six-run frame that set the tone for a 9-0 Cowboy victory in the series finale of a three-game Southland Conference series.
 
"Just not good enough in any of the three phases of the game," third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "We didn't play well in any of the phases, and we put ourselves in a very adverse position from the start of the ball game. You almost feel smothered from the very beginning, and it seemed as though it was hard to move on from that smothering from there on out."
 
The loss dropped Northwestern (25-24, 16-14) into a fourth-place tie with McNeese (28-23, 16-14), which swept the series. Both teams' seeding and tournament destinations are dependent upon the final two games of the series between Nicholls and Southeastern Louisiana. The second game of that series, scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, was rained out, necessitating the teams to play Sunday.
 
Regardless of the destination, the Demons will open tournament play at 1 p.m. Thursday.
 
A Northwestern team that has overcome a four- and a five-run first-inning deficit to win Southland Conference games this year never got in an offensive rhythm against McNeese starter Garrett Blanchard (3-3) and three Cowboy relievers, who combined to limit the Demons to three hits – all singles.
 
Defensively, Northwestern committed two first-inning errors, including one on the first batter of the game, and McNeese took advantage with DJ Pinkerton's one-out grand slam highlighting a six-run first inning against Carter White (1-5).
 
Blanchard took that run support and ran with it, holding the Demons to two singles and three walks across six innings. Blanchard also induced three double plays in his six innings as the teams combined to turn six twin killings in the game.
 
Northwestern did not move a runner into scoring position until the eighth inning when Zach White reached second on a two-base throwing error by McNeese reliever Jake Blackwell.
 
"There was an inability from the very beginning of the game to get any type of momentum," Bertrand said. "The very few small sparks we did have, we weren't able to capitalize and create something that we could either use or we could hold."
 
McNeese 9, Northwestern State 0
NSU     000 000 000 – 0 3 2
McN     610 100 01x – 9 13 1
W – Garrett Blanchard (3-3). L – Carter White (1-5). HR – McN, Isaiah Keller (8), Danny Barbero (11), DJ Pinkerton (3), Connor Walker (4). Highlights: McN, Hayden Stringfellow 2-3; Keller 2-4, HR, RBI; Pinkerton 2-4, HR, 4 RBIs; Walker 2-3, HR, RBI.
Records: Northwestern State 25-24, 16-14; McNeese 28-23, 16-14.