Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT — Lamar responded forcefully to a loss to No. 22 Missouri State Friday with a dominant 8-0 shutout of the Bears on Saturday.

The Cardinals collected 10 hits to drive in eight runs with no errors, and starter Noah Sills wowed in his debut, striking out three while walking none and allowing four hits in six innings. He had a perfect game through three innings.

“Momentum in baseball is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, whether that’s good momentum or bad momentum,” said head coach Will Davis. “We had some bad momentum, and Noah stepped up and changed that really early on. He had an awesome performance.

“I was glad the weather wasn’t too much of a factor, allowing to get this game in with an early start,” said Davis. “Our guys all answered the bell, arriving at 7 a.m. ready to roll. I commend them on being pros, especially after being punched in the mouth by a good team yesterday.”

Lamar pounced on nationally-ranked Missouri State early, plating four on five hits in the bottom of the first. Cole Coker and Grant DeVore drew walks to open the inning, and both advanced on a single by Robin Adames. Coker beat the throw home on Adames’ hit, which allowed Adames to reach second on the throw. A grounder to the pitcher from Chase Kemp gave the freshman his first RBI when he scored DeVore and advanced Adames to third, and two-out singles by Mike Leal, Chad McKinney, and Cole Secrest gave Lamar its 4-0 lead. Payton Robertson also singled at the end of the first, but he and Secrest were stranded when McKinney didn’t beat the throw home on Roberston’s single.

Big Red scored two more runs in the bottom of the third, running starting pitcher Ty Buckner. Chad Fleischman drew a one-out, four-pitch walk, and reached second on an error by the shortstop when Leal hit into a fielder’s choice. A one-out, full-count walk to McKinney loaded the bases, and Secrest earned his fourth RBI of the weekend on an RBI hit-by-pitch. Robertson snagged his first RBI of the year on a fielder’s choice that got Secrest out at second but advanced McKinney and scored Leal. A grounder to short by Coker limited the damage, but the Cardinals now led 6-0 after three innings.

Missouri State led off the fourth and fifth innings with singles to end Sills’ no-hitter and perfect game at three innings, but the formidable Cardinal defense held, with DeVore catching a liner in the fourth and throwing to first to get a double play. DeVore came up big again in the fifth, fielding a grounder and stepping on second to get the first out, then throwing to first to get the second out.

“Noah was throwing strikes, pounding the zone, and keeping people off balance, and he was able to get some weak contact,” said Davis. “Grant and Payton have been phenomenal up the middle for the past two days, and they’ve showed everyone what they can do. I feel confident that double plays are going to be a big part of our game on defense with those two guys.

Lamar put across its final two runs in the eighth inning. Secrest smashed a 2-1 pitch well over the left field fence to put Lamar up 7-0 with no outs, his fifth hit and fifth RBI in two games as a Cardinal. DeVore drew a one-out, full-count walk, and scored on a double by Adames that hugged the left-field line, putting Lamar up 8-0, the final score of the game.

“The funny thing is I think Cole [Secrest] got only one hit in all of our intrasquad games in the spring, and when the lights came on things change. He played great, with that great catch in centerfield and some terrific at-bats, none bigger than the two-strike, two-out RBI hit in the first to really get us going,” said Davis.

All told, the Bears would collect just five hits the entire day and place a runner on third only once, when John Privitera reached third with one out. He was stranded when reliever Tanner Driskill struck out the final two batters he faced to end the game, earn the save, and preserve the shutout.

“I don’t think that was even that good of a performance for him, and he still managed to strike out four, giving up one hit and two base runners,” said Davis. “He wasn’t landing the split like he usually does, but he was throwing 95 mph, so that really helped. He can still be better than that. When you have a guy like Tanner on the back end of games and get a lead like we had on a ranked team, you know you’ve got a pretty great chance of holding that lead.”

The Cardinal Classic wraps with two games on Sunday, Texas Southern against Missouri State at 10 a.m., followed by Lamar against Texas Southern 45 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.

“We’re going with Jack Dallas, a local West Orange-Stark product and Lamar quarterback, on the mound tomorrow. If you want to see him pitch, then come on out.”