HOUSTON — What a difference pitching makes. And while McNeese State had it Friday afternoon, Houston Christian didn’t.

Grant Rogers (7-0) went six scoreless innings while six HBC pitchers combined to walk nine with five hit batsmen in a 15-5 Cowboys victory in seven innings.

The Huskies’ defense was of little help to their pitchers, who rank last in the Southland Conference in team pitching, with five errors that led to five unearned runs.

The series continues at 1 p.m. today and concludes with a 2 p.m. Sunday game. Right-hander Derrick Cherry (3-0, 3.90 ERA) will take the mound for the Cowboys.

The Cowboys (18-8, 2-2 SLC) scored in five of the seven innings with four run in the second and five in the seventh for their second consecutive win.

Payton Harding went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs to lead McNeese. Cooper Hext drove in three runs, as did Braden Duhon, who also scored three runs.

The Cowboys knocked out seven hits, including a double.

Rogers allowed four hits and striking out four with one walk.

Freshman Baylor Baumann (0-2) lasted 41/3 innings for the Huskies (3-21, 1-3), getting torched for seven runs — five earned — on five hits. He walked four and hit a batter. None of the other five Huskies pitchers faced more than six batters.

The Huskies mounted a mild five-run comeback in the bottom of the seventh against the McNeese bullpen. Tyler LaRue, who also had a double, hit a solo home run for the Huskies’ first run. The big blast came from freshman Trent Baker’s three-run homer off reliever Isaac Duplechain, extending his hitting streak to eight.

Half of HCU’s eight hits went for extra bases.

McNeese opened the scoring in the second inning on a Duhon hit a two-run single. Taylor Darden reached on an error, allowing a third run to score. Hext followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.

In the fourth inning, Darden extended the McNeese lead to 5-0 with an RBI single.

Harden hit a two-run double in the fifth inning to make it 7-0.

The Cowboys scored three unearned runs in the sixth inning to make it 10-0. They closed out their scoring with a five-run seventh, highlighted by a two-run single by Hext.

a NOTES: Tré Obregon III and Josh Leslie extended their one-base streak. Obregon has reached in 23 consecutive games while Leslie increased his to 18. … Obregon saw his 10-game hitting streak come to an end after going 0-for-4 with a walk and run scored. … Leslie added to his league-leading RBI total with two, increasing his total to 38. … Harden increased his career school record for hits (280) runs (183).