WACO, Texas – A tough week sits ahead for the streaking, nationally-ranked Lamar University baseball team, and it all starts at 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the Baylor Ballpark when the Cardinals visit the Bears for a step into non-conference action. Two days later, McNeese State visits for LU's return to Vincent-Beck Stadium in a weekend, conference tilt.
 
The No. 25 Cardinals (25-7) enter the week as a ranked team for the first time since March of 2009 when they opened the season to a school-record 9-1 start.  They hold the nation's longest active win streak and are two wins away from matching the season's best mark of 17 (Florida).
 
Lamar is fresh off of a sweep at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, which included a furious rally from being down 12-6 to win 15-12 in the Sunday finale. It was the second time LU had to overcome a huge deficit to keep the streak alive last week after it fell behind Nicholls 10-1 on Wednesday.
 
Baylor (16-16) enters after it dropped a league series at Oklahoma on a 7-6 walk-off in the 11^th inning. Despite losing the series, it outscored the Sooners 15-12. Prior to that series, the Bears had taken four contests, two from Wofford and two from Kansas.
 
After only working 1.2 frames in his start Sunday, right-hander Jayson McKinley (2-0, 3.50 earned run average) will start the game on the bump for Lamar, and he will face Nick Lewis (1-3, 5.87). McKinley has worked eight contests and 43.2 innings, and has given up 17 earned runs on 45 hits with seven walks and 38 strikeouts. Lewis has 30.2 innings pitched with 20 earned runs given up. He's allowed 49 hits and 14 walks (18 strikeouts).
 
Darryn Sheppard leads the Bears in all the Triple Crown categories on a .344 average, 31 runs batted in and five home runs. Kameron Esthay has a .333 average with 13 runs and 17 RBI, followed by Matt Menard (.329/13/11) and Justin Arrington (.318/7/9).
 
As a team, Baylor hits .278 and scores at a 5.5 runs per game clip. Its pitching staff averages 5.1 runs a game on a 4.33 ERA.
 
Stijn van der Meer continues his reign at the top of the Cardinals' offense in terms of batting average (.362). He's riding a couple of streaks on his own, a 22-game hit streak and 30-game reached base streak. Bryndan Arredondo and Reid Russell are running a tight race for second in the average race, Arredondo at .353 and Russell at .352. Russell is the team leader in homers (11) and tied for the lead in RBI with Jake Nash (34). He's third in runs scored at 25 behind Nash (28) and van der Meer (27).
 
For the season, the Cardinals have scored 6.9 runs a game, but while on the streak they have upped that to 8.9- with 63 extra base hits. Pitching and defensively on the streak, LU has a 3.67 ERA and allows opponents to 4.6 runs a contest.
 
The series against McNeese is slated to start at 6 p.m. Friday night. The second contest is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and the finale will be at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon. All three of those games will be carried on the Big Red Sports Network.