Lamar sports information

ABILENE — Lamar baseball’s early offensive explosion – spurred on by three Trey Silvers home runs – led the Cardinals to a series win Saturday when they downed Abilene Christian 13-8 in Southland Conference action at Crutcher Scott Field.

Lamar (24-16, 11-9 Southland), which had five long balls in the game, recorded three in the first two innings. Two were off the bat of Silvers, one a three-run shot in the first and then a solo bomb in the second. Silvers ended his game as the sixth Cardinal to ever hit three home runs in a game – a school record – after he torched a pitch over the left field wall in the ninth inning.

By the end of the third inning, the Cardinals held a 9-5 lead.

After Silvers’ homer in the first inning made it 3-0, Jimmy Johnson (4-4) suffered a tough start when the Wildcats scored five runs on six hits and a walk. It didn’t take Johnson long to settle in after he came out in the second inning with an 8-5 lead.

Chad Fleischman and Phil Ingram led off the second inning with back-to-back walks and raced to second and third when Grant DeVore laid down a sacrifice bunt to the left side.  Fleischman scored and Ingram wheeled to third on an infield base hit from Cutter McDowell. After McDowell took second base on a walk pitch, Reid Russell lifted a sacrifice fly to center field. From there, Adames and Silvers hit back-to-back jacks that gave the Cardinals an 8-5 advantage.

Adames’ big fly was his third in two games after putting two over the wall in Friday’s contest.

Big Red added another run in the third inning on a single to left field from McDowell that chased home Cole Coker. Coker reached on a leadoff single to left.

After he got through the first inning, Johnson turned nearly untouchable until he found himself in a jam in the sixth that forced him to be pulled with the bases loaded and two outs. From the second through the fifth innings, the senior only allowed one base hit and two base runners, neither reached second base. In those four innings he struck out four Wildcats.

He finished his day with 5 2/3 innings of work with seven runs allowed on eight hits and three walks. In total, he struck out five batters.

Tanner Driskill relieved him and earned his third save of the year on 3 1/3 innings of work. He gave up one run on two hits and two walks, and struck out one batter.

ACU’s starter Zach Kornely lasted five innings with nine runs allowed on nine hit and three walks. Drew Hansen took over for the Wildcats and worked three innings with three runs allowed – both home runs – with just three hits and no walks.

Brandon Lambright took over for Hansen after Silvers’ third home of the game – in the ninth – and he hit Bryndan Arredondo. Lambright gave up one run (unearned) on two hits – and an unusual pickoff attempt that resulted in two errors.

Cutter McDowell was 3 of 6 on the day, including a long ball in the sixth inning to left, with three RBI and two runs scored. Including McDowell, the top four in Lamar’s order (Russell, Adames and Silvers) all had multi-hit days and had 10 of the Cardinals’ 14 hits.

Silvers was 3 of 5 with three homers, five RBI and three runs. Russell (2 for 4) and Adames (2 for 5) each had two base knocks. Russell finished with an RBI and run and Adames had two of each. Ingram had a two-hit day from the eighth spot of the order, and scored a run.

The Cardinals will bid for the sweep in Sunday’s 1 p.m. action at Crutcher Scott Field. Lamar will send out Jace Campbell (3-1, 3.22 earned run average), and the Wildcats haven’t announced who will face him.