April 10, 2011

Box Score

BEAUMONT, Texas - Wade Mathis went 3-for-4, drove in two runs and stole a base Sunday afternoon as Lamar University defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 10-0 to win its weekend Southland Conference series, two games to one.

Also, pitchers Albert Lott and Machon Trimm combined on a two-hitter for the Cardinals' second-straight shutout and fourth of the season, and Jim Gilligan moved within one victory of reaching the 1,200 milestone in this, his 35th season as a head coach.

"I don't see how we could play much better than we did today," said Gilligan, who saw his Cardinals improve to 22-13 on the season and 9-6 in the conference. "The pitching was there, the hitting was there, and the defense was there."

Lott, a 6-foot-3 junior left-hander from Ozen High School, yielded only a single by Trey Hernandez in the first inning and a double by Matt Holland in the fourth. Lott had one stretch over which he retired nine-straight batters, but he left with one out in the fifth after experiencing problems with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand.

Trimm, a 6-2 junior left-hander from Pearland, came on to pitch the final 2.2 hitless innings to earn his second victory in as many decisions. He walked one batter and struck out four, including the side in the sixth.

Mathis, a 6-2 senior first baseman from Wharton, drove in the Cardinals' first run with a two-out single to centerfield in the third inning, and he also had an infield single in the fifth. He later concluded the run-rule, shortened game with an RBI single to right in the seventh inning, giving him a team-high 30 RBIs in 34 games.

Shortstop Aaron Buchanan, a senior from Houston Klein Forest, also contributed three hits and two RBIs to the Cardinals' 13-hit attack, while senior centerfielder Ted Zentek of Simsbury, Conn. had two hits and three RBIs and catcher Joey Latulippe of League City had two hits and one RBI.

The loss dropped the Islanders to 22-14 on the season and 7-8 within the league.

The Cardinals will return to SLC action Friday night when they'll open a three-game series at Sam Houston State.

LAMAR