Final Stats

BEAUMONT, Texas - An early offensive outburst coupled with a dominant performance from Tyler Jay on the mound surged Illinois by Lamar 9-3 in baseball action at Vincent-Beck Stadium in the finale of the Cardinal Classic.

Lamar's (2-2) starting pitcher Eric Foshee jumped out of the gates with five straight batters retired, but Illinois (4-0) right fielder Casey Fletcher broke it up with a single to the left side and advanced to third base on a single from David Kerian. Kerian took off to steal second and allowed Fletcher to score when the Cardinals threw down to try and cut him down.

Foshee worked 2.1 innings on the day and surrendered four runs, three earned, on six hits, and had two strikeouts. His opponent, preseason All-American Tyler Jay, pitched five shutout innings and only allowed two hits and struck out six Cardinals.

"(Jay) had a spectacular arm with a good slider. He was really nasty," said head coach Jim Gilligan. "It gave us a chance to hit against someone like that to see if we're ready yet, and we're not but we're going to work on it."

A fielding error and four base hits in the third inning helped the Illini to push the score to 3-0.

Pat McInerney led off the frame with a single to left center and moved up to second after Adam Walton singled up the middle. Both moved up a bag after a sacrifice bunt and scored on a LU fielding error. Reid Roper- who reached on the error- scored on a single from Jason Goldstein.

Reid Roper led the UI offensive charge with three hits in five at-bats with two runs scored and three driven in.

Illinois strung together six hits in eight plate appearances, the other two walks, to add another four runs to the board in the fourth frame push the score to 8-0.

Freshman CJ Moore knocked in Lamar's first run in the sixth inning on a double to right center and pushed across junior Stijn van der Meer, who reached on a two-out walk. Illinois answered in the top of the seventh on a Ryne Roper double to left field that scored Kerian, who reached via single.

LU tallied the final runs of the game in the bottom of the ninth when Illini reliever Josh Ferry hit Moore, walked Reed Seeley and hit Justin Eckols. He was promptly pulled for Cody Sedlock who would eventually finish the game.

With the bases loaded and one out, Cutter McDowell singled through the left side and scored Joe Arechiga, who pinch ran for Moore, and Kyle Markum drove in Seeley on a sacrifice fly.

McDowell was 2-for-4 on the day with one RBI, and Moore, van der Meer and Jake Nash all added base knocks.

"We learned some things this week, some good some bad," said Gilligan. "It's time for players and coaches to get things fixed up and move on to the next weekend."

Brent Janak took over on the mound in the third inning and worked an inning and a third with four runs allowed on five hits and three walks. Joe Farley saw his first action of the season and pitched 3.1 innings with one run allowed on four hits.

Enrique Oquendo pitched 1.1 innings and Kyle Leggett pitched two-thirds of an inning and combined for four hits and no runs.

Illinois finished the Cardinal Classic with a perfect 4-0 record, Lamar was 2-2 and New Mexico State finished without a win.

Big Red returns to the field on Friday when they host a four-game set with Manhattan that starts at 6 o'clock Friday at Vincent-Beck Stadium. Game two is at 1 o'clock on Saturday followed by game three thirty minutes after. The finale will be on Sunday morning at 11 o'clock.