BEAUMONT – At times in sports, athletes will use their respective playing field to put the pains of the world behind them and really focus on the task at-hand. There's no doubt that senior pitcher Jayson McKinley just did that Saturday when he led the Lamar University baseball team to a 7-5 win and sweep of New Orleans in Southland Conference action at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
 
Though he didn't technically factor into the decision of the win and loss, he gave the Cardinals (16-7, 7-2 Southland Conference) all he had and left them in prime position to take the sweep, just one day after the passing of his father, Jay McKinley. The right-hander ended up six-plus innings of work and allowed three runs on four hits and three walks.
 
"I really wanted to be out here, because my dad wanted me to be," said McKinley. "It was kind of a nice getaway."
 
"I cost him a win because I was going to take him out after the sixth, but he threw so well in that last inning that I wanted him to go back out since the day was about him," said head coach Jim Gilligan.
 
McKinley opened the game with three scoreless innings, including a perfect second inning when he struck out two Privateers (15-8, 4-5). In the first and third innings, runners were able to take second base, but he stranded them there both times.
 
The Friendswood native ran into trouble because of walks in the fourth and allowed one run, but limited the damage to just that. The fifth inning was a key one. Sam Capielano smoked a leadoff triple to left field, but McKinley was able to keep the next three batters in the infield and stranded Capielano at third.
 
He sat down the Privateers 1-2-3 in the sixth, and the seventh is where UNO started to claw back into the game.
 
Scott Crabtree and Chaz Boyer both singled, one to right center and one to left center. That is when McKinley exited the ball game. Brett Brown took over and New Orleans was able to time some pitches for a couple more singles. Capielano singled up the middle and Preston Marsh singled through the right side, which scored Crabtree.
 
"I should've taken (McKinley) out and I didn't," said Gilligan. "It was just one of those things. They squared up a couple and we should've turned a double play and didn't. He gets a no-decision, but that is the second time in a row that he's come out and really been great.
 
"He is such a wonderful kid," he said. "He is the reason you want to go into coaching. To be able to have a little piece of that young man's life has been quite an honor."
 
The double play that wasn't was the next batter of Calloway, when Jay Robinson rolled over up the middle, but the turned throw was wide of first base. The fielder's choice scored Boyer. Dakota Dean cut it to 5-4 with a double to the right field wall and Hezekiah Randolph tied it with a ground out to second base.
 
Enrique Oquendo (1-0) was the winning pitcher after he came in and closed the door on UNO in the seventh and kept it at a tie ball game. He pitched 2.2 perfect frames and struck out two.
 
UNO's run in the fourth was the opening salvo of the game, but LU answered in the bottom of the frame with three on four hits. Robin Adames led off the inning with a walk, and Jacoby Middleton doubled him to third base. Chaneng Varela lifted a sacrifice fly to right field, and Brendan Satran doubled home Middleton to left field. Stijn van der Meer stepped to the plate and put a single into left center that scored the final run of the inning in Satran.
 
"I like the response innings that come out of this ball club. Some guys shut it down and some guys turn it on, and we turned it on every time we had to respond this weekend," said Gilligan.
 
LU added two more in the bottom of the sixth on three hits, including Jake Nash's triple to right center that scored van der Meer, who reached on a single. Nash eventually scored on Cutter McDowell's single to right.
 
The big response inning came in the bottom of the seventh when the game was knotted up. Chaneng Varela drew a one-out walk and was pinch run for by Gavin Tristan. Tristan worked his way to third on a passed ball and Satran's single up the middle. Van der Meer drove in Tristan after LU put Satran in motion to keep out of the double play, and Nash drove in Satran on a single through the left side.
 
Nash finished the day 3-for-5 with two runs batted in and a run scored. Van der Meer (2-4), Arredondo (2-4), McDowell (2-4) and Satran (2-3) all added two hits to the Cards' 13-hit effort. Reid Russell pushed his hit streak out to 15 games will van der Meer closely follows at 13.
 
Daniel Martinez (2-1) took the loss for UNO on 2.2 innings of work and two runs allowed.

The sweep gave LU back-to-back sweeps and six-straight wins for the second time this season. The last time LU put together back-to-back sweeps was in 2014 when the Cardinals downed Abilene Christian and New Orleans. 
 
The Cardinals head to Austin at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to face the University of Texas. That game will be carried on Newstalk 560AM and on the Longhorn Network.