March 28, 2009

Box Score

HAMMOND, La. - Lamar scored ten unanswered runs and pitchers Eric Harrington and James Brandhorst combined to strike out eight as the Cardinals defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 10-1, at Alumni Field Saturday.

Lamar (17-9, 6-5 SLC) snapped its four game losing streak and evened the series with Southeastern (16-9, 7-4 SLC) at 1-1.

Tyler Link, Brian Taylor, Chris Dunkin and Ryan Saldivar each collected two hits for Lamar, who finished with two home runs and four doubles among its 12 hits.

Southeastern scored first with a run in the opening inning when Ty Summerlin doubled and came home from third two batters later on a double by Josh Cryer.

The Cardinals then scored the next 11 runs, scoring at least once in each of the final six innings. They started the stretch with a Jeremiah Sammy sacrifice fly in the fourth, a solo home run by Saldivar in the fifth and a two-run homer by Sammy in the sixth. It was the second long ball of the season for both Cardinals. Lamar then loaded the bases with one away in the seventh and added its fifth run when Link scored on Andy Mena's sac fly.

Lamar plated four runs in the eighth, benefitting from an infield throwing error, a balk and three hits, while leaving the bases loaded. Consecutive one-out doubles by Saldivar and Link pushed the final run across in the ninth for the Cards.

Harrington (4-0) remained perfect on the year after going seven innings, including retiring eight-consecutive from the second through fifth innings. Brandhorst came on in the seventh after two men reached and induced a double play ball before striking out Cody Couglar to end the threat. He picked up first save of the season after striking out five over his three innings.

The teams will conclude their series on Sunday at 1 p.m.