LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - The 2024 season was a rollercoaster for the McNeese baseball team as they started Southland Conference play with a 3-9 record, before eventually finding their way into the Southland Conference Championship game. The Pokes finished Southland play with an 8-4 record before rattling off three wins in Hammond to make it to the Southland Conference Championship game where they would eventually fall to Nicholls.

Now, entering 2025 it’s about building on the end of the 2024 season, learning from what went wrong at the start of the year, and improving to find more success this season.

“We had a tough group, and we have a handful of guys that were contributors on last year’s team that are back this year,” said McNeese Head Coach Justin Hill. “I think just the ability to not have to dig yourself out of a hole. Now, it’s a little bit different this year with conference play starting much earlier, starting in week three. So we’re going to have to kind of learn as we go. But, you know, they saw what it takes to dig yourself out of a hole, we just hope we don’t put ourselves in that position early.”

The 2025 schedule is different for the McNeese Cowboys and the rest of the southland Conference. With the additions of UT Rio Grande Valley, and Stephen F. Austin to the conference, the Southland goes from 24 conference games, to 30 in 2025. With it, conference play begins much earlier, in 2024 McNeese had five non-conference series' before Southland play began, in 2025 they have just two, which changes things quite a bit.

“We’ve already talked about that as a group already, just talking about how it’s coming week three and those games count a little bit differently. We’ve tried to change our approach to our training and what we’ve done, and hopefully the training and the way we went about it is going to kind of show itself in a good way. We’ve got a challenging non-conference schedule starting off with Wichita State and then we head to Texas A&M. So we’ll get to find out a lot about ourselves early and hopefully get a chance to win some games along the way.”

The roster for the 2025 Cowboys looks a lot different than a season ago with 20 total transfers, and three true freshmen, which creates some questions about how the Pokes will look this season. However, the Cowboys also have 12 seniors and three graduate students which helps with leadership, and with establishing a culture, and standards.

“With the transfer portal now it’s just a little bit different. You have guys that are finishing their careers that maybe have been to a few different places, so you have to do a really good job on the front end. You have to teach them about who you are as a program, and what you’re about, because those championships, and the culture, and those kind of things, they don’t really mean anything to a player if it’s their first year here. That said, we have to establish that trust, win some ball games and get our own thing going with this group.”

The Cowboys had two players named to the All-Southland Conference preseason teams in seniors Conner Westenburg who was named to the first team, and Simon Larranaga who was named to the second team, both players who Justin Hill says will play a significant role in 2025.

“He (Conner Westenburg) brings it every day, he has great energy and is always working to improve and get better. He’s probably going to hit leadoff and play center field for us this year, and I’m excited to see the improvements he made to his entire game this season, and I’m excited to watch him play. As for Simon (Larranaga) he’s probably going to be in that top to middle part of the order, and we expect him to be a power threat, he was really close to double-digit home runs last season. The biggest difference you’ll see with Simon is instead of playing first base, you’re going to see him out in right field. He’s worked really hard to make the change, and that’ll be kind of a learning thing for him, but he’s shown a lot of athleticism and adaptability, and he’ll be a presence in the lineup for us.”

McNeese was picked to finish third in the Southland Conference preseason poll, behind just Lamar who was picked first, and Southeastern who was picked second, but Hill says that’s just a measuring stick to see where everyone is, but you have to prove it on the field.

“I think it’s informative (the preseason poll) and I think you can use it as some sort of motivation, but I’m more concerned with our players and coaches' drive than I am with a preseason poll.

As for the pitching staff, with conference play beginning earlier in 2025, it’s important for the Cowboys to figure out their weekend rotation. Figure out who the Friday, Saturday and Sunday starters are so once conference play begins just three weeks into the season, they’re in a good position and aren’t still trying to piece things together.

“Alexis Gravel, what he did for us last year, he’s going to get a nod opening weekend, and we don’t really have as many questions from a starting standpoint, it’s more so who are we going to go with out of the bullpen in high-leverage situations? We have a lot of new guys, when I looked at potential bullpen guys, just two of the nine guys have pitched significant innings for us, so we have a lot of new faces out of the pen. That said we have to figure out who those guys are to come in for high-leverage situations, but the only way to figure out who those guys are is to play the games.”

The Pokes will open the 2025 season with a tough series at home vs. Wichita State on Friday, a series coach Hill says will be a good test right out of the gate.

“Historically they (Wichita State) are really talented, and really good. The resources, the stadium, and the different things that they have, provides them opportunity, and we know it’ll be a challenge, but that’s good. This weekend will be good for us to see where we’re good at, where we struggle, and we’ll learn a lot about our team.”

The Cowboys' 2025 season begins on Friday at 6:00 PM vs. Wichita State, with games to follow on Saturday at 2:00 PM, and Sunday at 12:00 PM.