Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT — The ball was jumping all over the yard, but Trey Silvers’ three-run home run and a four-run sixth inning led the Lamar baseball team by Stephen F. Austin in a 10-5 win during a crucial Southland Conference series opener Friday night at Vincent-Beck Stadium.

Including Silvers’ home run and double, both teams combined for 10 extra-hits, and five of them were long balls. Reid Russell joined Silvers with a solo shot in the fifth inning, which broke a 4-4 tie, and the Lumberjacks (26-24, 14-11 Southland) added three of their own. The win gave the Cardinals (30-21, 13-12) their 30th win of the season under first-year head coach Will Davis.

Down 3-1 in the bottom of the third inning, Silvers launched his 10th long ball of the year, third three-run bomb, with no outs after Chad Fleischman reached on a bloop single in right and Chaneng Varela drew a walk. Conner Fikes tied it back at 4-4 in the top of the fourth with a solo bomb, but the Russell won the lead back with leadoff bomb in the bottom of the frame. The bomb was the ninth of Russell’s season and 27th of his career. He sits in fourth place on the all-time home run list at Lamar.

With Russell’s 18 homers last season and Silvers’ 10 this year, it is the first time that LU has had at least one player reach double-digits in back-to-back seasons since Michael Ambort and David Moore did it in 2007 and 2008.