Peyton Johnson came off the very end of the McNeese State bench and put the Cowboys on the brink of a third consecutive Southland Conference Tournament championship.

Pinch hitting in the bottom of the 12th, Johnson lifted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Braden Duhon for third base with the winning run after a Payton Harden double as the Cowboys rallied to beat Southeastern Louisiana 6-5 Thursday night.

“I was just trying to make something happen,” Johnson said. “You just have to trust your work, trust what you have done and try to make good contact.”

The win moved the Cowboys (34-21) within a win of claiming the first SLC championship series.

It was the fourth time this season McNeese walked-off the Lions (28-29).

“We want to enjoy this one tonight, get some rest and not worry about anything until the morning,” said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. “We do not want to go to Saturday.”

Game 2 in the best-of-three series will take place tonight at Joe Miller Ballpark.

A crowd of 1,102 watched an epic game between the SLC’s top top two regular-season teams. McNeese earned the top seed and regular-season title by one game.

The win was the eighth straight for McNeese and 12th in a row in SLC Tournament play dating to 2019. McNeese has not lost a league tourney game since 2018.

Cameron Foster (4-2), the Cowboys’ closer, worked five scoreless, pressure-filled innings to get the win. He allowed one hit and walking none in 42/3 innings of work. He struck out eight.

“I knew it was going to come down to this,” Foster said. “I just wanted to put up zeroes and I knew we would score at some. Just tried to hold them until then.”

Southeastern closer Gage Trahan (4-4) took the loss. Three of those loses have come at the hands of the Cowboys in Lake Charles.

Brad Burckel’s two-out double in the eighth inning scored Harden all the way from first and tied the score at 5-5 after the Cowboys trailed 4-2 after five innings.

McNeese cut the lead to one in the seventh when Reid Bourque walked with the bases loaded. However, Kade Morris could not deliver, leaving the Cowboys behind 5-4 entering the eighth inning.

Tyler Finke homered in the top of the seventh to put the Lions up 5-3. It was Finke’s ninth home run of the season, a solo blast to over the 400-foot sign in center field.

The Lions took the lead with four runs in the fifth. The big blow was a three-run double off the bat of Preston Faulkner. It came after Rhett Rosevear had been hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score the first SLU run.

Faulkner followed by lining the first pitch he saw from McNeese starter Grant Rogers into the gap in right-center, clearing the bases.

The Cowboys jumped out to 2-0 lead with single runs in the third and fourth.

Duhon’s single drove in Bourque from third with the first run of the game. In the fourth Morris was hit by a pitch to give the Cowboys their second run.

McNeese had chances to win in both the 10th and 11 innings but could not drive home the winning run.