Box Score

Box Score

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Tyler Watkins pitched seven strong innings, scattering eight hits and fanning five, while Jeff Harkensee hit a three-run home run in the first inning as Southeastern Louisiana defeated Northwestern State, 10-4, in the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament Thursday morning at Whataburger Field.

Cody Gougler and Cass Hargis had three hits each as Southeastern (40-18) reached the 40-win mark for the first time in school history and eliminated Northwestern State (36-21) from postseason play for the second consecutive year.

Southeastern will return to action on Friday at 9 a.m. when it faces McNeese State. The game can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9) and on the internet at www.LionSports.net. Live video, courtesy of SLC NOW, is also available at www.LionSports.net and www.Southland.org.

“This is the one of the best hitting teams in the conference and Tyler Watkins was locating all of his pitches today which was important with how capable they are swinging the bat,” Southeastern head coach Jay Artigues said. “We knew due to their offense that seven runs wouldn't be enough and we had to keep scoring runs throughout against them. Our guys did a good job adding on late in the game then stopping them late with Stefan Lopez came in and making big pitches.”

Southeastern wasted no time in getting on the scoreboard after Hargis hit the fifth pitch of the game for a triple and Justin Boudreaux drew a walk. Harkensee then belted the first pitch from Demon starter Ryan Zimmerman (6-5) over the right-field fence for his sixth home run of the season and giving the Lions a 3-0 lead.

“We wanted to score early and had no problem playing in the early gam,” Harkensee said. “We just tried to have fun by swinging the bat. I was just trying to drive the run home from third but the ball cleared the fence. Staying aggressive early is what we wanted to do after the tough loss yesterday and we did a good job of that.”

The Lions added four more runs in the third inning as they chased Zimmerman after Gougler and Joe Sparacino led off the frame with singles. Gougler gave Southeastern a 4-0 lead when Josh Cryer hit a sacrifice fly before the Lions collected four straight hits off Demon reliever Andrew Plotkin.

Chris Franklin began the spurt with a single before Brock Hebert hit an RBI double and Trey Martin followed with a bloop RBI single over a drawn-in infield. Hargis, who scored a run to move his career total to 175 – one shy of the school record set by Ty Summerlin – then singled to drive in Hebert and give Southeastern a 7-0 lead.

That was enough for Watkins (6-3), who handcuffed Northwestern State for seven innings while allowing eight hits and fanning five. The Demons threatened in the eighth inning as it loaded the bases with no outs and chased Watkins. But freshman Stefan Lopez came in and got out of the jam, fanning Tyler Baisley before getting Justin Martinez to pop up and Colin Bear to ground out.

Northwestern State cut into the Southeastern lead scoring three runs in the third and a run in the fourth before the Lions put the game away with three runs in the eighth.

Boudreaux led off the inning with a double into the left-field corner before scoring on Harkensee's Southland Conference-leading 27th double down the right-field line. Gougler then singled to left field and moved to third on a two-base error by Eric DeBlanc before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Cryer for a 10-4 lead.

Chase Lyles went 3-for-5 to lead Northwestern State, which dropped its seventh straight game in the postseason. Adam Roy went 2-for-4 for Northwestern State with a two-run double.

Southeastern La..... 304 000 030 - 10 14 0 (40-18)
Northwestern State.. 003 001 000 - 4 9 3 (36-21)
Watkins, Lopez (8) and Cryer. Zimmerman, Plotkin (3), Northcott (3), Sheppard (7), Hennigan (8) and Munoz. W – Watkins (6-3). L – Zimmerman (6-5). E – DeBlanc (5), Munoz 2 (12). DP - SLU 1. LOB - SLU 9, NWLA 8. 2B – J. Boudreaux (12), Harkensee (27), Hebert (13), Lyles (13), Roy (16). 3B – Hargis (7). HR – Harkensee (6). HBP – J. Boudreaux, DeBlanc, Martinez. SH – Martin (12). SF – J. Cryer 2 (6). SB – Hargis (17), Martin 2 (15), Lyles (34), Baisley (11). CS – Hebert (2). T - 3:17. A – n/a.