HOUSTON – The Lamar University baseball team torched Houston Baptist in an 8-0 win in game one of the doubleheader and then held on for a thrilling 8-6 win in the second game to sweep the Huskies in a three-game series at Husky Field in Southland Conference action.
 
Love (4-2) threw the second complete-shutout for the Cardinals (29-10, 14-4 Southland Conference) this season, Will Hibbs tossed the other against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi two weeks ago. Love was dominant Saturday in a two-hit contest and only faced three batters over the minimum. The senior righty walked one Husky (18-20, 9-9) and stuck out four, and threw only 97 pitches.
 
"Two hits in nine innings is just spectacular," said head coach Jim Gilligan. "What I liked most about his outing is that I feel like I've pinpointed mechanically what he does well in good games and poor in bad ones. This is a very important weekend in that respect. We sure needed that from him today."
 
He gave up both of his hits and the walk in the first two innings, and from there he proceeded to sit down 10-straight before an infield error allowed another Husky runner in the sixth inning. That runner was rolled up in a double play, and Love finished the game with another 10 in a row retired.
 
Offensively, the big blows in the game were Jacoby Middleton's two-run double in the second inning and Reid Russell's three-run home run just one inning later.
 
Russell kicked off the second inning with an infield single and advanced to second on a single through the left side from Robin Adames. Cutter McDowell advanced both with a sacrifice bunt before Middleton stepped to the plate and ripped a double down the left field line.  
 
Jake Nash, who popped a solo homer in the ninth inning, started the third-inning rally with a single up the middle. He moved up a bag when Bryndan Arredondo drew a four-pitch walk to put two on for Russell's long ball to left field.
 
The Cardinal bats were kept quiet through the fourth and fifth, but woke up in the sixth and seventh frames. Nash scored again in the sixth after he singled and took second on a wild pitch, which set him for Russell's fourth RBI of the game on a single to left field. Middleton scored in the seventh on a bases-loaded walk to Stijn van der Meer (3-1 count).
 
In the second game, the Cardinals bats started the game hot as was shown when back-to-back singles from van der Meer and Nash put two aboard for Russell's second three-run dinger on the day, which gave the Cardinals a 3-0 lead midway through the first.
 
"I thought we were going to come out rolling and get after them," said Gilligan. "But credit HBU.  They jumped on us."
 
In the very next frame, Houston Baptist used two doubles and sacrifice fly to jump back up 4-3. Andrew Alvarez doubled to right center and scored Greg Espinosa and Louie Payetta, and Blake Thomas doubled home Alvarez. Zac Garcia scored Brandon Brintz on a sacrifice fly to central.
 
In the second inning, Trey Silvers popped a leadoff home run to center field to tie the game at 4-4, and Gavin Tristan worked his way around the bags to set up to score on van der Meer's sac fly to left.
 
In the bottom of the second inning, Joe Van Marter reached after being plunked and Payetta singled to lead off the inning. With two outs, Alvarez collected his fourth RBI of the game when he tripled home both runners and put the Huskies back on top 6-5.
 
Both pitching staffs settled in until van der Meer was able to strike and put the Cardinals back into a tie when he pushed across Silvers from second with a two-out single to center field in the sixth inning. In the seventh, Lamar was able to gain the advantage again on Middleton's second ball over the wall in the series with a first-pitch homer to left field.
 
The final salvo of the inning was in the ninth when LU added insurance on Silvers' double to left that scored Robin Adames, who was hit by a pitch.
 
Jimmy Johnson (7-1), who took over in the third, was the difference on the mound for LU. Jayson McKinley started the contest and gave up four runs through just 2/3 of an inning, and Travis Moore worked 1.1 frames and allowed the other two runs. Johnson took over and shutdown the surging Husky offense to that point.
 
The Palestine native pitched seven innings and only allowed two hits with one walk and struck out four. He only faced two batters over the minimum.
 
"Jimmy just mowed right through them for seven innings," said Gilligan. "He was just spectacular. He kept the ball low and was able to elevate it when he need to.
 
"Really the only negative of the weekend is that we didn't get to throw Enrique (Oquendo)," he said. "We've got good pitchers battling for innings, which is a great problem to have.
 
HBU's Dylan Zarosky (2-3) suffered the loss out of the bullpen with three innings of work and two runs allowed on three hits and two walks. Zach Carter started the game for HBU and pitched six innings with five earned runs allowed on seven hits and a walk.
 
Russell finished the day 5-of-10 with seven runs driven in and three runs scored. His two dingers upped his season total to 13, tying Will Henderson's total from the most long balls since Michael Amort's school record 18 in 2005. He also has 45 RBI on the year, most since Darian Johnson's 47 in 2013.
 
"Reid was doing Reid things today," said Gilligan. "That kid works his butt off and it's good to see his results."
 
Nash was 4-of-11 with four scores and one RBI, and he is still chasing the chance to be the first 40-40 Cardinals (runs-RBI) since Sam Bumpers and Darian Johnson did it in 2013. Silvers was 2-for-4 on the day from the DH position and Middleton was 4-of-8.
 
"Silver came in and gave his best reason to take the DH spot today," said Gilligan. "We needed everything he did today."
 
The offense combined for 26 hits in the doubleheader, topped by the 16 base knocks in the first game. It was the 22^nd and 23^rd time the team had recorded 10 or more hits in a game this season.
 
The sweep was the fourth of the 2016 campaign for the Cardinals
 
The Cardinals have no midweek game before they continue their road swing at Incarnate Word in a league three-game set, staring Friday at 6:30.