Power surge: Brinlee homers twice, drives in six runs, Cowgirls end five-game losing streak
Warren Arceneaux
Rosepine’s Haylee Brinlee homered twice and drove in six runs to help McNeese State to a 9-3 win over Houston Wednesday night in a nonconference game, snapping the Cowgirls’ five-game losing streak.
The game was delayed 33 minutes in the bottom of the sixth inning due to rain and lightning.
McNeese (11-18) snapped out of an offensive slump. During the losing streak, McNeese scored four runs and was shut out in the final two games of a winless weekend series at Sam Houston State.
The nine runs matched a season high.
The Cowgirls took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, scoring two runs on a double steal when the Cougars (9-14) didn’t cover third base and misplayed the ball in left field, allowing Toni Perrin and Sara Grier to score.
McNeese doubled the lead in the third when Brinlee smashed a two-out, two-run homer to left. She finished 3-for-4.
Brinlee’s blast was the first hit of the game for McNeese. The first three Cowgirls to score all reached on a walk.
The Cowgirls added a run in the fourth when Perrin singled and scored from third on a liner to first by Chloe Gomez.
Houston pulled within 5-3 in the fifth on an RBI single by Paige Hulsey and two-run double by Lindsey Stewart.
Brinlee extended the lead to four runs in the bottom of the inning with a towering two-run homer to left.
She narrowly missed a third homer, hitting a two-run double off the left-field wall in the sixth inning.
Hulsey and Katie Ray Brown had two hits each to lead Houston.
McNeese starter Whitney Tate (4-7) pitched five innings, giving up three runs on five hits.
Logan Hulon (0-3), who made her second start in seven appearances, took the loss. She gave up five runs on three hits in four innings. But the seven walks she issued proved to be her undoing.
The Cougars didn’t help themselves with a pair of errors.
The Cowgirls play their next four games on the road, with a Southland Conference series at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi this weekend followed by a nonconference game at South Alabama on Wednesday.
McNeese State’s Sara Geier slides safely into third base with the steal against Houston. She later scored on a passed ball Wednesday night at Cowgirl Diamond.