Final Stats

BEAUMONT, Texas - It was tight, but a cast of characters led the Lamar baseball team to a 7-6 win over New Mexico State in the 2015 season opener, but more importantly led Cardinal skipper Jim Gilligan to his 1,300th career win on Friday night at Vincent-Beck Stadium.

"These things (coaching records) simply represent teams and players, you don't win 1,300 games unless you have really good players," said Gilligan, who opened up his 38th season as Lamar's head coach. "We've had a bunch of them.

"I'm proud of the way the guys played tonight, and for the most part we played pretty well," said Gilligan. "We had some mental mistakes, but we'll get that cleaned up."

One player who could stake claim to a spot on that list is freshman CJ Moore. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native was 3-of-5 on the day with a double, home run and three runs batted in. He had one out double in the first inning and ended up at third base, but was stranded.

"CJ was nervous, I did not think he'd get a hit tonight," Gilligan said with a chuckle while Moore was looking on. "He looked like he was finishing out his senior year in high school."

Moore crushed a three-run dinger on a 2-0 pitch in the fifth inning that pushed the score to then 6-2 in the Cards' favor. He rounded out his day with a single and stolen base in the eighth inning, and was again stranded at third.

Another important piece to Gilligan's milestone win was newcomer Galen Andrews (1-0) who completely shut down the Aggie lineup after they tied the contest at 6-6. He finished his night with 4.1 hitless and shutout innings of work and had six strikeouts.

"Galen did such a magnificent job tonight and had a tremendous breaking ball and had good velocity," said Gilligan. "He really pitched well."

Senior captain Brandon Provost delivered the final blow in the sixth inning on a two-out two-strike single through the left side. He pushed across Stijn van der Meer, who walked and moved to third on a single up the middle by Reed Seeley.

NMSU (0-2) scored first in the fourth inning on a double down the left field line form Kyle Graf that knocked in Daniel Johnson and Quinnton Mack.

"They have a good ball club, just look at the way they played Illinois," said Gilligan. "They had the game before (a 5-1 loss to the Illini), but let it slip away and then get away."

Lamar tied the game on a two-run laser from Tyler Sullivan in fourth that scored Kevin Santana and Provost. The Cards followed with a single to left center field from nine-hole hitter Mason Salazar that pushed across Sullivan. Salazar, van der Meer- who reached on single, both scored on Moore's long ball.

A costly LU mistake in the Aggie frame of the fifth netted NMSU four runs and knotted the contest. Derek Umphres led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a walk two batters later from Johnson. After Johnson was walked, LU starter Will Hibbs was pulled from the mound.

Will has been looking very good, and I hate to see him not do what he's capable of tonight," said Gilligan. "I saw some things that he was doing, and I think he was a little revved up tonight."

With two on and one out, Brett Brown walked the bases loaded before Brent Hermanussen singled down the third base line to score one. Graf send a grounder to second base that was bobbled on a double play attempt that allowed another run to score. A bases-loaded walk and wild pitch later, the score was tied.

Hibbs pitched 4.1 innings and gave up four runs on five hits and four strikeouts. Brown had one-third of an innings and gave up two runs on one hits and three walks.

New Mexico State starter Robert Kraft worked five innings and allowed six runs on nine hits, two walks and three strikeouts. He was relieved by Trey Higginbotham (0-1) who permitted the winning run after five hits and one walk.

Every Cardinal starter but one had a hit in the game, and Sullivan, Provost and Moore all had multi-hit games. Sullivan was 2-of-4 and Provost has two base knocks in five attempts.

Johnson led the Aggies at the plate with two hits in as many at-bats, and four other player joined in with a hit apiece.

Gilligan is only the 19th head coach among all divisions to win 1,300 ball games, and only one of six to still be active.

Lamar hosts a double-header Saturday that starts at 2 o'clock against Illinois and follow with a six o'clock first pitch against New Mexico State. The two victors will square off again before both contests at 11 that morning.

Probable starters for Big Red on Saturday are left-hander Chase Angelle in LU's first game and Danny Fernandez in the nightcap. Both games will be streamed live by the Big Red Sports Network at bigredSN.com.