BEAUMONT – The Lamar University baseball team will look to snap its three-game skid on Tuesday when it laces up the cleats to face Prairie View A&M, the Cardinals' 10th game in 12 days, at 4 p.m. at Vincent-Beck Stadium in non-conference action.
The Cards (6-3) won its first six contests, including victories over No. 23 Arizona and No. 5 LSU, but lost its last three, all were to North Dakota State. One of the losses was a blown late lead and the other a casualty to errors.
Prairie View (2-5) enters the game on a four-game skid, three at the Al Ogletree Classic in Edinburg, Texas at Texas Rio Grande Valley. It also has loses to Texas A&M and Louisiana Tech. Its lone wins were against league members Alcorn State and Grambling State.
Nick Gurka leads the Panthers in hitting at .533 with four runs batted in and three runs scored. His four RBI ties the team lead with Carson Lee, who has a .385 batting average, and his three runs sit behind nine from Kevin Macias and four from Brashard Jones and Angel Avalos.
Edward Robeldo (1-1, 5.19 earned run average) is expected to get the start Tuesday. He's pitched in three games with one start, and worked 10.2 innings with seven earned runs allowed.
The Cardinals are led in hitting by
Bryndan Arredondo, who is coming off of a hot week at the plate. He was 9-of-19 with five runs batted in and four runs scored. He sparked LU with the first runs against LSU with a two-run shot over the left field wall, and drove a walk off over the wall in the lone win over North Dakota State.
Jacoby Middleton (.333) and
Cutter McDowell (.314) round out LU's .300 hitters, and
Jake Nash broke out of his cold spell to jump to a .286 batting average. Middleton is the team leader in RBI at nine and McDowell follows at eight.
LU will continue its 14-game homestand on Friday by opening up a three-game set with Texas Rio Grande Valley. Those three games will be 11-13 and the final contest of the stand will be Rice a week after PVAMU. The UTRGV contests are slated for 6 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
For tickets or information, contact the Lamar University ticket office in the Montagne Center or at 409-880-1715.
