BEAUMONT — Lamar was in position for another comeback win with runners at second and third bases.

A flyout and strikeout ended the seventh inning, a scoring threat the Cardinals would not pose again as Stephen F. Austin took a 4-2 victory before 799 at Vincent-Beck Stadium.

“You’ve got to have better at-bats in those situations,” Cardinals coach Will Davis said. “Getting a hit is hard, but we didn’t have very good at-bats there. I think going forward, if we’re going to be successful, we’re going to have to come through in those situations.”

Lamar (6-8, 0-2 Southland) dropped its first Southland Conference series of the year with Game 3 set for 1 p.m. Sunday. Taylor Rich (0-0, 1.00 ERA) will take the mound for the Cardinals, as SFA (7-8, 2-0) has not named its starter.

“All 30 individual games matter,” Davis said of Southland play. “You want to win every series. It makes you feel better when you win a series. Tomorrow’s game matters just as much as next Friday’s game against McNeese.”

Two errors also hampered the Cards on Saturday. SFA scored two runs in the second inning on an un-fielded roller past first base and went up 3-0 in the third after Sean Moore slapped a two-out single to left field to drive home Jared Martin.

The Cards, who scored six runs in the ninth inning of a 7-6 win over Prairie View two weeks ago and won a 13-inning battle at Houston Baptist, seemed to start another comeback with two runs in the fifth inning. Port Neches’ Logan LeJeune led off with a double and scored on a Rhett McCall single. Avery George pulled the Cards within 3-2 on a sacrifice grounder.

George had a single in the third inning to extend his hitting streak to 13 and on-base streak to 24, dating back to last season. He was 1 for 4.

McCall batted 2 for 4 to lead Lamar. J.C. Correa, Robin Adames and Reese Durand also had hits in the loss.

Brandon Uhse and Moore each batted 2 for 4 for the Lumberjacks, with Nick Daley, Manny Vasquez and Jake Georgiades lining the other hits. Each team finished with eight hits.

Jaxon Covington (2-0, 1.29 ERA) struck out two and gave up one earned run on six hits in six innings. Trayson Kubo, Austin Roth and Jesus Gamez (first save) each tossed a strikeout.

Noah Sills (0-2) posted three Ks but gave up seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. Austin Smith twirled 3 2/3 innings of one-hit ball.

“Noah battled. Much like Jason [Blanchard], he didn’t have his best stuff,” Davis said, referring to Lamar’s starter in Friday’s loss. “They were barreling up a lot of balls, but he battled and gave us five-plus innings and only three runs, and shouldn’t have given up three runs.

“Austin Smith was phenomenal. He had them right there to give us a chance to win, like he has several times.”

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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews