Lamar sports information
HOUSTON – The Lamar University baseball team torched Houston Baptist in an 8-0 win in game one of the doubleheader and then held on for a thrilling 8-6 win in the second game to sweep the Huskies in a three-game series at Husky Field in Southland Conference action.
Love (4-2) threw the second complete-shutout for the Cardinals (29-10, 14-4 Southland Conference) this season, Will Hibbs tossed the other against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi two weeks ago. Love was dominant Saturday in a two-hit contest and only faced three batters over the minimum. The senior righty walked one Husky (18-20, 9-9) and stuck out four, and threw only 97 pitches.
“Two hits in nine innings is just spectacular,” said head coach Jim Gilligan. “What I liked most about his outing is that I feel like I’ve pinpointed mechanically what he does well in good games and poor in bad ones. This is a very important weekend in that respect. We sure needed that from him today.”
He gave up both of his hits and the walk in the first two innings, and from there he proceeded to sit down 10-straight before an infield error allowed another Husky runner in the sixth inning. That runner was rolled up in a double play, and Love finished the game with another 10 in a row retired.
Offensively, the big blows in the game were Jacoby Middleton’s two-run double in the second inning and Reid Russell’s three-run home run just one inning later.
In the second game, the Cardinals bats started the game hot as was shown when back-to-back singles from van der Meer and Nash put two aboard for Russell’s second three-run dinger on the day, which gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead midway through the first.
Jimmy Johnson (7-1), who took over in the third, was the difference on the mound for Lamar. Johnson took over and shutdown the surging Husky offense to that point.
Johnson pitched seven innings and only allowed two hits with one walk and struck out four. He only faced two batters over the minimum.
HBU’s Dylan Zarosky (2-3) suffered the loss out of the bullpen with three innings of work and two runs allowed on three hits and two walks. Zach Carter started the game for HBU and pitched six innings with five earned runs allowed on seven hits and a walk.
Russell finished the day 5-of-10 with seven runs driven in and three runs scored. His two dingers upped his season total to 13, tying Will Henderson’s total from the most long balls since Michael Amort’s school record 18 in 2005
Nash was 4-of-11 with four scores and one RBI, and he is still chasing the chance to be the first 40-40 Cardinals (runs-RBI) since Sam Bumpers and Darian Johnson did it in 2013. Silvers was 2-for-4 on the
The offense combined for 26 hits in the doubleheader, topped by the 16 base knocks in the first game. It was the 22nd and 23rd time the team had recorded 10 or more hits in a game this season.
Lamar hits the road to face Incarnate Word at 6:30 p.m. Friday.