Feb. 27, 2011

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas - Lamar University's four-game series with North Dakota State came to a rather bizarre end Sunday afternoon when a pitch from Bison reliever Luke Anderson hit home plate and bounded high over the protective screen and landed in the Vincent-Beck Stadium box seats.

The freakish miscue allowed Kevin Roebuck to race in from third base and score the decisive run in the Cardinals' 5-4, 11-inning victory to give them the series sweep and extend their winning streak to five games.

Roebuck led off the Cardinals' half of the 11th inning by grounding a single past Bison third baseman Jay Hartman and into left field. First baseman Wade Mathis sacrificed Roebuck to second base, and he went to third moments later when Jude Vidrine flew out to center field.

"I've seen a few games end in similar fashion but only because I've been around a long, long time," said Jim Gilligan, Lamar's head coach. "The ball didn't really need to go into the stands, because Kevin had a good jump on it. When he saw the pitch was going to be in the dirt, he was off to the races."

The Cardinals' third-straight one-run victory and fourth of the season puts them at 6-3 going into a Tuesday afternoon home game against Texas Southern University. The loss dropped North Dakota State to 0-7 on the season.

Freshman left-hander Cody Laird, the fourth pitcher used by Gilligan in the game, picked up his first collegiate victory. He worked 2.1 innings of hitless relief, striking out one batter and not walking anyone.

Lamar starter Eric Harrington, a junior right-hander from Port Neches-Groves, opened the game in impressive fashion by recording three strikeouts each in the first two innings. He went on to run his strikeout total to a career-high 11 but exited in favor of reliever Jeff Abt after allowing nine hits and three Bison runs over five innings.

The Cardinals took the initial lead with a first-inning run and added two more in the second, but the Bison scratched their way back to tie the score with two third-inning runs and another in the fifth.

Ted Zentek's RBI single to right field enabled the Cardinals to retake the lead at 4-3 in the seventh inning, but the Bison retied it by scoring an unearned run in the top of the ninth when Lamar committed two costly errors.

The Bison outhit the Cardinals 12-8 and had the game's only extra-base hit, a double by left fielder Nick Colwell, who went 3-for-5. Roebuck, shortstop Aaron Buchanan and second baseman Andy Mena had two hits each for the Cardinals.

LAMAR