BEAUMONT – A lot was sitting on the Stijn van der Meer's at-bat in the seventh inning, but he prevailed with a double just inside the right field line that rolled towards the wall that erased a nine-run deficit and gave Lamar University a lead that turned into a 14-10 win over Nicholls and pushed the Cardinals win-streak to 12 Wednesday afternoon at the at Vincent-Beck Stadium in non-conference baseball action.  
 
LU (22-7) looked at a 10-1 shortfall by the middle of the fifth, but seven-run rally in the bottom of the frame- largely on the back of back-to-back home runs from Reid Russell and Cutter McDowell- along with one run in the sixth and van der Meer's double in the seventh gave the Cardinals an 11-10 lead.  The win streak ties the 2013 team for the Lamar's longest win streak since it won 19 in 1980.  The school record is 20 from 1979.
 
"I think the fact that we had a little win streak going had something to do with the comeback," said head coach Jim Gilligan. "When you start winning and get on a run, it becomes something that motivates. Sometimes the more you win the harder you are to beat. You are out there trying to keep something great going."
 
With the double, the van der Meer improved his hit streak 19, which ties for fourth all-time at LU with Jerald Clark and Chad Bunting.
 
Gavin Tristan kicked off the big  fifth inning with leadoff single to central followed by the a single to left from Brendan Satran, which flipped it over to the top of the lineup with two men on an no outs. Van der Meer walked to load the bases and Jake Nash pushed across the first run of the inning on a groundball turned to error on an errant throw from third baseman Dylan Manicihia.
 
With the bases loaded and still no outs, Bryndan Arredondo put up a sacrifice fly to right that scored Satran. Russell stepped to the plate and launched a shot over the centerfield wall that cut it to 10-6. His homer ties Anthony Moore and David Moore for the most since 2008, and Michael Ambort hit 11 in 2007. 
 
"From the bullpen that ball looked like a golf ball," said Gilligan. "It looked like someone had just teed off with a new set of golf balls."
 
Following Russell's long ball, McDowell crushed one of his own in consecutive pitches, which made it 10-7. With the bases empty and still one out, Robin Adames drew a 3-1 count walk and took third on Middleton's single to center field. Pinch hitter Trey Silvers put up another sacrifice fly into right that scored Adames and cut it to 10-8, and a strikeout ended the frame.
 
"This ball club is a big inning ball club. When you know you have that ability, then you're never out of it and the other team knows that too," said Gilligan. "Everybody tells me the word to describe us is dangerous. Everybody has some pop and scares you.
 
"You can't pitch around guys because we have guys right down to the bottom of the lineup that can swing it," he said.
 
Matt White (1-0), who claimed his first career win as a Cardinal, stranded a runner in the top of the sixth inning and allowed Big Red to cut it to 10-9 on Russell's RBI single that scored Jake Nash, who reached on a one-out double to left. He advanced to third on a single through the left side by Arredondo, the exact same hole Russell's single went to.
 
White stranded another Colonel on the bags in the seventh, his last inning of work. He ended up with 2.1 scoreless innings pitched with one hit and two walks allowed along with three strikeouts.
 
"White went in and kept us on the edge of our seats. He just kept putting zeros up on the board," said Gilligan. "It was a lot like LSU when (Brett) Brown just kept putting zeros up. That allowed us a chance to get back."
 
New second baseman Chaneng Varela reached on four-pitch walk in the seventh and took second on a groundball to Ethan Valdez at second base, which the infielder was never able gain control of. Van der Meer seized the opportunity with his double that scored both, and he scored shortly after on an Arredondo single to left that put the Cardinals on top 12-10.
 
The final two insurance runs were scored in the eighth on the backs of three-straight hits and a sacrifice fly. Adames reached on a one-out single up the middle, his third hit of the game, and Middleton followed with a single to right. Varela drove one in when he popped a double to left and left Middleton on third base for Satran's sacrifice to center.
 
In the first four innings the Cardinals had only one run on two hits, but in the final four frames they put 14 hits and 12 run on the board. Both the 16 hits and 14 runs rank third on the 2016 campaign.
 
"The hitters, that is quite a story," said Gilligan. "What they did was remarkable. That is what you look from the intangible side of things. Guys don't quit when you're down nine runs. That's big."
 
Adames led the way in hits with three in four at-bats, he also scored two runs. Van der Meer and Russell were 2-of-5 and Arredondo was 2-for-4. Russell had the team-high four RBI and four Cardinals walked away with two runs (van der Meer, Adames, Tristan and Satran).
 
"That is really big for us. Playing like that with a deficit and playing well in tight ball games is big, and we've done both of those," said Gilligan.
 
Will Hibbs took the mound in the eighth, used it as a regularly scheduled bullpen session, and worked a perfect frame as did Jimmy Johnson in the ninth. Hibbs had a strikeout.
 
Nicholls jumped on LU pitching early with five runs in the first two innings. Gavin Wehby drew a bases-loaded walk and Trevor Flynn rolled over a bases-loaded groundball to put the Colonels up 2-0. In the second, Wehby punched another one in on a single to center field and Flynn rocked double down the left field line to make it 5-0.
 
In the fifth, Nicholls scorched the Cardinals for five runs, largely on back-to-back two-run singles from Kyle Knaugth and Quade Smith. 
 
"During the week when you have two games, the Wednesday game is usually a lot of experimenting," said Gilligan. "We had a lot of failed experiments."
 
Hunter Speer (0-1) was tagged with the loss after 1/3 of an inning pitched with two runs allowed on two hits and one walk. The Colonels ran through seven pitchers and only starter Jake Smith pitched more than two frames. He worked three innings and allowed one run on one hit and a walk.
 
The Cardinals return to Southland Conference action on Friday at 6 p.m. at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in Chapman Field. The second game of the series is schedule for 4 p.m. Saturday and the finale at 1 p.m. on Sunday.