Lamar sports information

BEAUMONT — The Lamar softball team continued its winning ways on Saturday afternoon at the Cardinal Classic. The Cards (7-8) earned two victories as they opened play by defeating Rhode Island, 4-1, before beating Maine, 7-2.

In the contest against Maine, Kelly Meeuwsen recorded one RBI, which set the school record for RBIs in a career at LU.

Lamar 4, Rhode Island 1
The pitching came out and dominated the contest early as neither team could get anything going at the plate. The Rams struck first in the contest in the bottom of the third inning. With a runner on second and two outs, Castillo singled and scored Vrivitsky putting the rams ahead, 1-0.

The Cards could not get anything going at the plate as they only had two hits for the first five innings of play. Lamar’s pitching staff did not let the Rams get much more.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Cards offense started to come to life. Maddy Myers led off with a single. With one out, Shannon Klaus followed with a single. They loaded the bases on a Rams error. Following, the Rams error, Rhode Island committed its second straight error that score one.

Shaina Amir followed with a double down the left field line scoring two and giving the Cards its first lead of the game at 3-1. LU was not done as Taylor Murphy hit a sacrifice fly to left field giving the Cards a 4-1 lead after six innings of play.

Needing three outs to win the contest, the Rams led off the seventh with a single to center field. However, Julia Voluntad got the next three hitters out giving the Cards a 4-1 win. The win for LU was its fourth in a row.

Lamar 7, Maine 2
In the top of the first, the Cards struck first. Kelly Meeuwsen singled to center field and then stole second. After a groundout moved her to third, Elizabeth Castillo was hit by a pitch. With Jade Lewis at the plate, Castillo was thrown out trying to steal but Meeuwsen scored putting the Cards ahead 1-0.

Lewis was dialed in on the mound for the Cards as she kept the Black Bears off balance and only allowed one hit over the first three innings. The Black Bears got to main in the top of the fourth inning. German led off with a triple to left field. She scored on a single by Derrick tying the game at 1-1.

The game stayed tied at 1-1 until the top of the sixth inning. In the top of the inning, LU broke the game open as they took advantage of hit batters. Lewis led off and was hit by a pitch. Amir followed with a bunt single and Maddy Myers loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch. Kimberly Mattox drew a bases loaded walk putting the Cards ahead, 2-1. Taylor Davis followed with single up the middle, which scored two putting LU ahead 4-1. After the first out of the inning, Meeuwsen hit a sac fly putting LU ahead 5-1. With the sac fly, Meeuwsen became the career RBI leader at Lamar.

The Black Bears cut into the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. German led off with a home run down the left field line. Following the home run, pitcher Erin Kyle struck out the next two and got a ground out to end the inning.

LU added to its lead in the top of the seventh inning. Castillo reached on an error and went to second on a single by Lewis. A groundout moved both runners up a base. LU scored one after a throwing error by the Black Bears. LU added one more on a wild pitch and led 7-2 going to the bottom of the seventh inning.

Kyle kept Maines’ bats quiet in the bottom of the seventh inning. She got a pop out and two straight ground outs to end the game and the Cards won its fifth straight contest.

The Cards return to action on Sunday, Feb. 24 when they conclude the Cardinal Classic. LU plays UTSA at 11:30 a.m. and close out the Classic against Austin Peay at 2 p.m.