SAN ANTONIO - The Lamar Lady Cardinals keep finding a way to win in the Southland Conference.

The Lady Cardinals swept a doubleheader from Incarnate Word by scores of 11-7 and 4-3 on Sunday, using an offensive outburst in the first game and some good pitching and a big defensive play to win the nightcap.

Lamar (16-11 overall, 9-0 Southland) raced out to a 9-0 lead after three innings before holding on for the win in the first game. Shannon Sain had three hits, two RBIs and three runs scored for Lamar in the opener, while Stephanie Meeuwsen and Jenna Holland each added two hits and three RBIs.

I'm excited that we're 9-0 in conference," Lamar coach Holly Bruder said. "We got our offense going in the first game, and did what we needed to in the second game."

Incarnate Word (3-23, 0-9) battled back from that early deficit with five runs in the fourth inning to make a game of it. Lamar added two big insurance runs in the sixth, with the big hit a triple by Holland. Those two runs proved to be important, as UIW scored twice in the bottom of the seventh and had runners on first and third when starting pitcher Laura Napoli (11-6) finished off the complete game by getting Katie Helm to ground out to end the game.

Lamar held on in the second game after building a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth. Casey Cromwell homered for Lamar in the fifth inning, her school-record 17^th home run of her career to make it 2-0. Lamar made it 4-0 in the sixth on a two-run single by Marissa LeJune before UIW made things interesting once again.

UIW scored two runs in the sixth as Lindsey Hood tripled a home a run before scoring on a single by Alex Alonzo.

In the seventh, back-to-back Brooke Dubois and Natalie Duron made it 4-3 with one out. Napoli came on in relief of starter Lauren Dannelley (5-5) and promptly got the second out before a passed ball, a walk and a stolen base put runners on second and third.

Kellen Robles, who had re-entered for Duron was thrown out at home after getting a late start on a pitch that got past catcher Brynn Baca, who retrieved the ball and fired it to Napoli who put the tag on a sliding Robles to end the game and continue Lamar's hottest-ever start in Southland play.

Shannon Sain had hits in both games to extend her streak of reaching base safely to 20 straight games, tying the school record held by Stephanie Meeuwsen and Beverly Corry. Meeuwsen had her steak of reaching base safely end at 20 games after going hitless in the nightcap. Meeuwsen also reached base safely in 20 straight games last year as well.

Lamar has a huge Southland Conference series next weekend, as it hosts Northwestern State, which is 8-0 in the conference. The teams play a doubleheader at 3 p.m. Friday and a single game at 2 p.m. Saturday.

For ticket information, call (409) 880-1715, or visit www.LamarCardinals.com.

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