Final Stats

BEAUMONT, Texas - An 11-run first inning in the series opener surged the Lamar offense to a 14-1 win, and left-handed pitcher Chase Angelle followed that with a complete-game 2-1 victory in the nightcap against Manhattan Friday night in a gusty Vincent-Beck Stadium.

LU (4-2) starting pitcher Danny Fernandez (2-0, 2.08 earned run average) ran through the Manhattan (0-2) offense in the first inning of game one with just a walk allowed, but when he returned to the mound in the second frame looking at an 11-0 lead.

"That was great," said Fernandez. "I really haven't had that before, but it allowed me to relax and work through innings."

Fernandez went on to complete the game on seven innings after the contest was called in the seventh due to the 10-run rule that both head coaches agreed to pregame. He allowed only three hits on the day with two walk and five strikeouts.

Stijn van der Meer led off the Cardinal first with a single to right field and moved up to second base when Manhattan's starter Scott McClennan (0-1) over threw the first baseman on a pickoff attempt. Two batters later Reed Seeley drove in van der Meer for the first run of the game.

Including Seeley's at-bat, the Cardinals strung together 13-straight at-bats that resulted in a runner reaching base. LU had six hits, five walks and two MC errors in that span. Brandon Provost and followed Seeley with a hit, and then Santana followed Provost with a walk that loaded the bases. Cutter McDowell reached on a walk, which scored Seeley, and then Kyle Markum popped up a sacrifice fly that was crushed into center field, but was caught in the wind and Chris Kalousdian couldn't complete the play.

The wind reached a top gust of 29 and averaged between 16 and 22 miles per hour throughout the game.

"This ball park on a day like this, it's going to take someone making a mistake or someone doing something good," said head coach Jim Gilligan.

Markum's fly ball allowed both Provost and Santana to score. With two on and one out, Mason Salazar rolled a dribbler to the left side, but third baseman Matt Forlow over ran it and allowed McDowell to score. Eckols walked and van der Meer punched his second hit of the inning through the left side to knock in two more runs. A walk and three singles later LU had a 10-0 lead, and McDowell drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 11-0.

McClennan only lasted two innings in the game and threw 82 pitches. He gave up eight hits, four earned runs (11 overall), five walks and three strikeouts. Maxx Feldman relieved him and quickly gave up another run in the third inning on a fielder's choice RBI from Kevin Santana.

Feldman allowed two more runs in the fifth inning fielder's choice from Brendan Satran and another sacrifice fly by Markum.

"In the first ball game, they only scored one run but they hit the ball hard," said Gilligan. "Every time we left it up they hit it really hard."

The second game was quite the opposite with both team only mustering up a combined three runs.

Manhattan jumped out to a quick lead in the first frame. Kalousdian led it off with a singled and promptly stole second soon after. Santisteban drove him in on a single through the left side. Angelle's (1-1, 2.57) defense helped him limit the damage with a 6-4-3 double play that ended the inning.

After the first inning no base runner made it to third, and only two landed at second. He finished the contest with eight hits allowed, no walks and seven strikeouts.

"We did what we had to do pitching wise," said Gilligan. "Danny had a big lead so he threw a lot of fastballs. Then Chase did a really good job keeping them off-balance until we could find a way to score a run."

Big Red tied the game in the second inning on a double to right center from Tyler Sullivan that pushed across McDowell. McDowell lined a one-out single through the right side and advanced to second on a ground out to the left side from Jake Nash.

Satran, who pinch ran for Markum after a leadoff walk, scored the game winner in the eighth inning on a scorched double into left center field from McDowell. Satran was able to move into scoring position on an errant pickoff throw and reached third base on a sacrifice bunt by Santana.

"We got the leadoff walk and we were going to steal, but they threw us to second base," said Gilligan. "Santana pushes a bunt and gets (Satran) to third base, and a base hit scores it. Just like we practice."

Van der Meer finished the day with a combined four hits in nine at-bats and two runs scored and two knocked in. McDowell, Santana and Seeley all had three hits on the day. Seeley scored four runs and knocked in four, McDowell scored two and pushed across three and Santana had one run and two driven in.

The Jaspers and Cardinals will face-off again in another doubleheader on Saturday that is scheduled to start at 1 o'clock. Lamar will have Will Hibbs (0-0, 8.31) on the mound in the early game and Eric Foshee (0-1, 11.57) in the nightcap.