Final Stats

BEAUMONT, Texas - Northwestern State put together back-to-back scoring innings and starter Adam Oller kept the Lamar baseball team off balance Friday night in a 4-2 Cardinal loss at Vincent-Beck Stadium in the Southland Conference opener.

Sunday's matchup of the series was moved to Saturday due to impending weather in the area. Saturday's doubleheader is slated to start at 1 o'clock with the night cap approximately 30 minutes after the first contest.

Due to the Gusher Marathon held on Saturday, patrons planning to attend the game are advised to travel south on US 69 (Cardinal Drive) to the Highland Avenue exit. Take the exit and remain on the service road until the intersection with Rolfe Christopher. Drive under the overpass north on Rolfe Christopher. Turn left (west) into the Soccer/Softball Complex parking lot, which is adjacent to the Vincent-Beck Stadium parking lot.

Down 4-1, the Cardinals (7-6, 0-1 SLC) tried to mount a comeback in the last frame, but fell short and stranded a runner on first. The Demons (7-7, 1-0 SLC) put together nine hits, six in the seventh and eighth innings.

Ryan Seeley kicked off the ninth frame with a double that jumped over the Cort Brinson's head in left field, and he scored in the next at-bat on a Brandon Provost single into right center. Oller finished his complete game with a strikeouts of Jake Nash and Kyle Markum.

Oller, the reigning SLC Freshman of the Year, allowed six hits in the contest and gave up two runs (one earned) on six strikeouts. He finished the matchup with 117 pitches. LU's starter Danny Fernandez worked 7.1 innings and allowed four runs on nine hits and no walks. He struck out two and ended his night with 104 pitches.

"I thought Danny did a great job. It was a real pitcher's duel," said Cardinal head coach Jim Gilligan. "(NSU's) guy did a great job and our hitters struggled with his breaking pitch, and he kept it coming. He was everything that was advertised."

Brinson opened the seventh frame with a double to right center and advanced to third on a sacrifice fly from Chase Daughdrill. CJ Webster knocked home Brinson with a single through the right side of a drawn in infield, and Garret Logan pushed Webster up a bag with a single in exactly the same spot.

Joel Atkinson pushed the score to 3-1 with a double down the left field line, but a fantastic throw from Kevin Santana kept it from getting worse and nailed Logan at the plate.

Northwestern State pushed across its fourth run in the eighth inning on back-to-back hits, first a single from Matt Alford. Caleb Dugas spilt the left field gap and pushed Alford across on a close play at the plate.

"There was nothing devastating. They scratched and they fought at the plate," said Gilligan. "They fought harder than we did at the plate.

"We competed hard at the end but like I told our guys, it's a nine-inning affair and you can't excited at the last second," he said.

Between those two innings Kevin Santana hit a ball that looked like it would give the Cards a 4-3 lead, but it fell just short of the wall and Brinson was able to corral it. Seeley led of the frame with a laser at third base that hit Alford's glove and bounced out before he could close it. Two batters later, Nash singled through the left side to put two on.

The Demons fired the opening salvo when back-to-back grounders to short allowed Brinson, who led off the inning with a double to left center field, to score. Lamar answered in its frame of the third on an RBI-error off the bat of Brendan Satran that scored CJ Moore from third base. Moore lined a one-out single up the middle and then stole second and took third on an errant throw to get him.

Derek Wade took over on the mound in the eighth and stuck out the first batter he saw and induced a fly out to end the frame. Ryan Cawthon worked the ninth and retired the side in order.

Both Seeley and Provost had multi-hit games, Seeley scored and Provost had an RBI. Stijn van der Meer has his 10-game hit streak snapped on Friday with a 0-for-4 night.

The Cards will start left-hander Chase Angelle (1-1, 3.71 earned run average) on the mound in the first contest on Saturday, and he will be opposed by Oller's older brother Josh (2-0, 2.11). The night cap will feature LU's Eric Foshee (1-1, 4.05), who will make his second start of the week and NSU's Jeffery Stovall (1-1, 3.50).