Final Stats

BEAUMONT - Free passes helped Texas Southern jump out to an early lead and pad it in a three-run seventh inning Wednesday when the Lamar baseball team fell 6-2 to the Tigers at Vincent-Beck Stadium in the Cardinals' final midweek game of the season.

TSU (23-15) capitalized on a walk in the first inning with three-straight singles. Ryan Lazo reached on the walk, and stole second base just before Javier Valdez pushed him across on single. Valdez later scored in the inning to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the middle of the first.

Jake Nash, who was 2-for-4 on the day with LU's two runs batted in, answered with a RBI-single that scored CJ Moore. Moore reached on a walk, stole second and scored from there on Nash's single.

Texas Southern pushed it back out to a 3-1 lead in the second inning, again it capitalized on a walk- to Zach Welz. Welz went from first to third on a failed pickoff attempt by pitcher Billy Love. He scored on an infield single off of Lazo's bat.

The score held at 3-1 in the bottom of the third inning until Stijn van der Meer, who reached on a single up the middle, scored on Nash's sixth double of the season. The Cardinals nearly doubled TSU's hits, 11-6, but the Cardinals left 10 men stranded base. It was the third-straight game that LU left 10-plus batters on, four in the last five games.

Pinch hitter Samuel Terry delivered the big blow for Texas Southern in the seventh inning on a three-run triple down the right field line. He pushed across Welz, Robert Garza and Valdez. Welz and Valdez were both walked.

The Cardinals worked through nine pitchers on the day, and only Brandon Kirkham, who was perfect in two frames, worked more than one inning. LU starter Eric Foshee (2-5) was tagged with the loss with two runs on three hits and a walk.

Ryan Rios (5-1) earned the win in 5.1 innings of work. He allowed both of Lamar's runs on eight hits and a walk. TSU went through four pitchers in the contest.

Nash, van der Meer, Kyle Markum and Mason Salazar all had two hits in the game, and Nash notched his third mulit-RBI contest of the year.

Lamar travels to first-place Southeastern Louisiana on Friday for a 6 o'clock first pitch at Pat Kennelly Diamond.