ABILENE, Texas – After a big win over Texas that pushed the Cardinals' win streak to seven, the Lamar University baseball team will continue non-conference action with a familiar foe over the weekend, Abilene Christian. The series opener, slated for Friday, was pushed back for a Saturday doubleheader that starts at 2 p.m. at Crutcher Scott Field
 
The series finale is still scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday. Each Southland Conference program has a weekend of non-conference play during the conference season, and both ACU and LU agreed to use that weekend to face each other. After the weekend, Big Red will continue its non-league action again with another SLC program in Nicholls during midweek action.
 
The Cardinals will return to actual league play on April 8 when they head to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. ACU is the last non-conference weekend for Lamar during the 2016 regular season.
 
Both the Wildcats (10-14) and the Cardinals (17-7) enter the series after big wins in midweek action. Lamar traveled to Texas for the first time since 2003 and took a 4-2 win after Jake Nash's clutch single to center field in the top of the ninth allowed the Cardinals to gain a lead.  
 
The Cardinals walked away with 13 hits, led by Chaneng Varlea's three, while UT only had seven. Reid Russell, Robin Adames and Brendan Satran all had two hits in the contest, and the bottom of the order was productive going 8-for-15 (.533).
 
LU ran through four pitchers in the contest, none worked more than three innings and neither allowed more than three hits while on the mound.  Jimmy Johnson (6-0), who is tied as the nation's leader in wins, took the victory on 2.1 innings of work, and Enrique Oquendo earned his third save of the year with a perfect ninth and two strikeouts.
 
ACU used a walk-off bunt single from Aaron Draper at The Crutch that snapped a seven-game skid. Draper squared around in the first pitch he saw of the final at-bat, and left plenty of time for Willie Harris to score from third base. Three of ACU's six hits in the contest were in the rally ninth.
 
Lamar is expected to keep the same rotation it's had for the past couple of weekends. Right-hander Will Hibbs (4-1, 2.03 earned run average) will get the ball in the opener and RHP Billy Love (1-1, 2.28) will start in Saturday's second game. RHP Jayson McKinley (1-0, 2.80) will start the Sunday contest.
 
Hibbs is the team's leader in innings pitched (40.0) and strikeouts (32). McKinley has the team's best strikeout-to-walk ratio with 30 punchouts and six walks. Love pitched his first career complete game with LU in his last outing against New Orleans.
 
Hibbs is projected to face righty Kyle Carroll (2-4, 4.36), who is also an infielder for the Wildcats. Righties Garrett deMeyere (2-3, 3.00) will get the ball in Saturday's second contest and Aaron Mason (3-1, 2.60) is expected to pitch in Sunday's game.
 
Alex Copeland is the Wildcat leader in hitting with a .302 batting average with nine runs scored and six driven in. Braxton Wilks is the team leader in RBI (13) and runs (12), and Draper is the other Wildcat in double-figures for RBI.
 
Russell has taken over at LU's offensive leader with a team-high .360 batting average and 23 runs batted in. The Longview native is also fourth in runs scored, behind 18 from each Bryndan Arredondo, Nash and Stijn van der Meer. Nash is second on the team with 21 RBI, and all but one batter in the Big Red Lineup register in the double-figures for RBI and runs.
 
LU will return home for a quick two-game pit stop on Tuesday for a two-game set with Nicholls that starts at 6 o'clock.