Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT – Tanner Driskill, Robin Adames, and Grant DeVore each received preseason all-conference veneration Tuesday for their respective 2017 performances.

Driskill was named to the 2018 Perfect Game All-Southland preseason team, and Adames and DeVore earned Second Team All-Southland honors from the league.

“It’s certainly an honor to have Tanner, Grant, and Robin recognized as pre-season all-conference,” said head coach Will Davis. “It emphasizes the great seasons that they had last year. It’s nice to have three solid veterans to pair with so many of the young guys that we are excited about.”

As part of its 2018 college baseball preview, Perfect Game took an in-depth look at each of the NCAA Division I baseball conferences. The organization ranked teams in their predicted order of finish – Lamar is picked fourth – and released an all-conference list.

Driskill was honored by Perfect Game after finishing 2017 with an ERA of 2.87 through 78 1/3 innings. The senior from Round Rock struck out 63 batters while allowing just 14 walks, the fifth-best strikeout-to-walk ratio in the Southland.

He led the conference in WHIP (0.97) and opponents’ batting average (.213), and was named Honorable Mention All-Southland pitcher at the conclusion of the 2017 season after 27 appearances, including five starts.

The Southland Conference released its own all-conference list on Tuesday, honoring 26 student-athletes across the league that were voted on by the SLC coaches. DeVore and Adames were both named to the Second Team All-Southland Conference.

DeVore, who transferred into Lamar at the beginning of the 2017 season from Grayson College, hit .333 for the year, the third-best batting average on the team. The senior had 54 hits in 2017, including a career-best 10-game hit streak from May 5 through May 19. He had 18 multi-hit games, including a career-best four-hit game at McNeese on May 19. He saw action in 53 games, including 51 starts, as a utility player. He appeared at center and right field and at second base. The Dallas native was named to the 2017 All-SLC Third Team as a utility player and made the Second Team All-SLC this preseason.

Adames, a 2016 Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, was named to the Second Team All-Conference preseason team as the designated hitter. He led LU in hits (78) and RBI (58), ranking sixth and fourth in the Southland, respectively. He was second on the team and 10th in the conference in batting average (.344), and drove in a career-best six RBI in LU’s 14-8 win over Stephen F. Austin on May 13. This is his third All-Conference honor after being named to the SLC Preseason and SLC All-Conference Second Teams in 2017.

The Southland Conference preseason poll, voted upon by the coaches and media members of the league, will be released Thursday at noon. The 2018 season officially begins Feb. 16 when Lamar hosts Illinois in the opening day of the Cardinal Classic.