SUGAR LAND — Jim Gilligan emerged from the Lamar dugout just after the final out, congratulating opposing coaches as if it were another game.
The Lamar dugout, meanwhile, barely moved in apparent disbelief.
Gilligan’s storied coaching career — and a season in which the Cardinals had already exceeded expectations and scored victories against big-name opponents following a 21-31 season — came to a bitter end on a cloudy, Thursday afternoon at Constellation Field, as Stephen F. Austin beat Lamar 5-2 in the losers’ bracket of the Southland Conference tournament.
For the record, the Lumberjacks — whom Lamar (35-19) swept the previous week in Nacogdoches — outhit the Cardinals 10-8, and seven Cards were stranded, all in scoring position. But that didn’t matter to Gilligan minutes after the final out.
“I really don’t want to analyze this game,” he said. “I don’t want to be critical of anybody or how we would bat if we had a chance to win today.”
Gilligan finished with a 1,345-885-6 record in 39 seasons (1973-86, 1992-2016) at Lamar. He went 10-10 at Western New Mexico in his first season as a head coach in 1972.
Will Davis was hired from the LSU staff in January to replace Gilligan and served as third base coach this season.
Asked what Gilligan’s initial thoughts were after the game, he responded: “It’s too many of them.”
Jayson McKinley, one of 13 Lamar seniors, held the Jacks to one unearned run on four hits through six innings after a rough start by Billy Love (4-5, 4.20 ERA).
“I felt good because I really thought we had a chance to be in it,” said McKinley, who struck out five. “It’s the least we [as pitchers] could do to help out the hitters because they’ve helped us all year long. We’ve been one of the best offensive teams in the conference. I think they did enough to win today, but we just fell a little short.”
SFA (28-29) got to Love for three earned runs on four hits in just one-third inning. Tyler Kendrick, Nick Ramos and Kyle Thornell, the Jacks’ top of the order, each singled. Garrett McMullen hit a sacrifice fly and Conner Fikes singled in the second run to chase Love. Zac Michener made it 3-0 on a sac grounder.
The power-hitting Cards scored only two runs in two games at Constellation Field after Wednesday night’s 3-0 loss to another team they swept in the regular season, Central Arkansas. The wind Thursday blew right into the infield and proved unforgiving to a team that had similar struggles in its own stadium throughout the season.
“[Wednesday], I felt like we really outhit UCA,” van der Meer said. “This park is just not hitter-friendly. This ballpark [sees] a lot of fly balls. They just don’t go anywhere. That’s a huge part of why we didn’t come up with any runs.”
Van der Meer and Cutter McDowell each had two hits. Van der Meer smacked a one-out triple to drive home Brendan Satran for Lamar’s first run, but a pop-up and flyout to center ended the threat.
Reid Russell and Trey Silvers started the Lamar fourth with singles, and Bryndan Arredondo rewarded Russell with a run on his double. But Silvers (third base) and Arredondo (second) would be stranded.
Lamar’s next-to-last serious charge came in the eighth thanks to Jacoby Middleton’s hit-by-pitch at-bat and Russell’s reach on a fielder’s choice. But Austin Hagy struck out Silvers and Adames did not beat a throw from the pitcher to first base for the third out.
Thornell, who drove in a run in the seventh, and Fikes, who scored on a Zach Valenzuela single in the eighth, each finished with two hits for the Jacks, as did Tyler Boxwell.
Hagy (5-4, 5.47 ERA) was credited with the win after keeping Lamar scoreless through four innings and fiving up two hits. Starter Erik Nouis’ line was one earned run on six hits with three strikeouts in the first four innings.
In the ninth, Tyler Starks got Arredondo and Chaneng Varela to fly out and Ryan Erickson to ground out for the save, closing the final chapter on the Gilligan era.
“You don’t want the last out to be the last out,” Gilligan said. “I’ll have a little time to think about that now. I don’t know what my reaction to all of this is going to be. In the moment, you compete and you try to win. You don’t start thinking about what you’re going to do tomorrow. Tomorrow will take care of itself. I’m just trying to get past today. I just didn’t do a good job of it.”
•
I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews