Final Stats

BEAUMONT - The bases were loaded with nobody out in the first inning, and Collin Chapman worked his way out of the jam without a run and set the tone in a 5-0 win over Houston Baptist to avoid the sweep on Sunday at Vincent-Beck Stadium in Southland Conference action.

The Huskies (21-16, 12-6 Southland Conference) won game one of the series 3-2, which was finished first on Sunday after a lightning delay suspended it on Friday, and took the second contest 4-3 to win the series.

"I'm proud of our guys pulling one out in the end after losing two tough one-run games," said Associate Head Coach Jimmy Ricklefsen. "We had a chance to win the second game in the ninth inning, but came up short. For us to come out in that third game and win was big."

Chapman started the game for Lamar (18-21, 7-11) and hit the first batter he faced in Zach Nehrir. Louie Payetta followed him with a single to right field, all before Curtis Jones was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The pitch that hit Jones stirred up controversy on the field that led to Head Coach Jim Gilligan's ejection.

The mood was set with the ejection and when Chapman struck out Samm Wiggins and induced a ground ball for a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play.

Chapman put two on in the second inning, and stranded them and one on in the third and again stranded him. The offense provided some runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on a couple of HBU miscues.

"It was good to see Chapman go out there and put up some goose eggs because he is going to be important for us down the stretch," said Ricklefsen. "We played solid defense and had timely hitting."

Stijn van der Meer- who hit from the three hole for the first time all season- singled to left and Jake Nash followed with a single to right before Kyle Markum sacrificed them over. CJ Moore took the box and hit a bouncer to the right side that held van der Meer at third, but Jones airmailed it by the first baseman to score him.

Nash scored on a wild pitch and Moore scored on Brendan Satrans's single to the left side.

The Cardinals put the game away in the fifth inning when van der Meer scored on a throwing error to get Markum and Nash scored on a Mason Salazar's single through the left side. Van der Meer reached on a walk and Nash a single.

Kyle Leggett (1-1) took the mound with two outs in the fifth inning for Joe Farley- who relieved Chapman after he gave up as single that led off the inning. Leggett worked 2.1 scoreless innings and surrendered two hits for his first win of the year.

Will Hibbs and Derek Wade worked an inning apiece; Hibbs hit a batter and Wade allowed a hit.

Five hitters in the LU lineup had two hits, Reed Seeley, van der Meer, Nash, Salazar and Satran. Seeley, van der Meer, and Nash make up the two, three and cleanup hitters in the lineup. Moore and leadoff hitter Joe Arechiga added a single hit.

"Most of all, I am very, very, very proud of the guys to comeback that last game," said Ricklefsen. "When you lose two one run games basically in the same day it can become a mental thing."

Jake Nash led the way with six base knocks in the series, and five other Cards collected three hits.

Taylor Wright (6-4) suffered the loss on four innings of work with three runs, two earned, on eight hits. The Huskies worked through five pitcher, none but Wright worked more than two.

GAME TWO

The Cardinals threated in the bottom of the ninth inning in game two with the bases loaded, but Josh Martinez danced out of danger and earned his first save of the season when he recorded an out on a sacrifice fly to center from Markum- scored van der Meer- and another fly ball to center field from Moore to end it.

The contest started scary when the first pitch of the game was belted to left field and Kevin Santana was racing back to try and catch, but both slammed into the wall and allowed Nehrir to round the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

Moore gave Lamar a 2-1 advantage with a two-run double to right field that scored Nash and Satran, who both reached on singles. HBU tied the game in the fourth on Andrew Alvarez's single through the right side that scored Wiggins from second, and grabbed the lead back in the seventh when Curtis Jones scored from third base on a bunt single from Greg Espinosa.

McKinley (2-2) took the loss on 5.2 innings of work. He surrendered three runs on seven hits and a walk. Danny Fernandez relieved him and closed out the game with a run given up on five hits. Curtis Jones (4-4) claimed the win with 8.1 innings of work before getting pulled for Martinez.

Nash notched two hits and a run in the contest, and van der Meer, Satran, Markum, Moore and Justin Eckols all added a base knock.

GAME ONE

Only five outs were needed on Sunday to wrap up the opening contest of the series, and it was a quick five outs. Nehrir was at the plate first with one out and singled to the right side, but that was it. Payetta flied out to right and Jones rolled over a grounder to the Salazar at second-who made a fantastic diving play to get there- and ended the Husky side of the frame.

Dylan Zaroksy took the mound and earned the save on three-straight outs, which included a strikeout.

Chase Angelle, who battled an illness all week, started the game for LU and worked a solid six innings. He was pulled in the seventh inning when Alvarez reached for Derek Wade, who immediately struck out Thomas Clay. Nehrir singled to right field and an error allowed Alvarez to reach third base. Alvarez scored on a sacrifice fly and Wiggins singled to left field to push across Nehrir, which tagged Wade for the loss.

Lamar jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when CJ Moore was credited with a RBI-triple to right field that pushed across Reed Seeley, who reached on a walk. Moore's fly ball carried to deep right, but HBU right fielder Clay slipped and fell just before the ball hit his glove.

Salazar made it 2-0 in the fifth on Stijn van der Meer's groundout to the right side. Salazar was at third base, and every infielder except second baseman Espinosa was drawn in. Espinosa is exactly where van der Meer went with the pitch.

Wiggins notched the Huskies first run on a homer in the sixth.