NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Lamar University baseball team ended the regular season in style. The Cardinals completed Jim Gilligan's regular season career with a dominating 12-0 run-rule win that swept Stephen F. Austin Saturday afternoon in another offensive outburst at Jaycees Field in Southland Conference action.
 
Friday the Cardinals (35-17, 20-1 Southland Conference) trounced the Lumberjacks (27-28, 14-16) with eight homers in two games- including six in the second game. Saturday it was more of the same when five long balls were scorched to give the Cardinals 60 homers as a team on the season, first time since 1999 and is the fourth highest total in school history.
 
The Cardinals locked up the fourth seed in the Southland Conference Tournament and will be facing fifth-seeded Central Arkansas, who comes in after sweeping Southeastern Louisiana, at 7 p.m. Wednesday evening. It's the highest seed Big Red has had going into the tourney since it was the fourth seed in 2009.
 
Reid Russell was one of the Cardinals to jump the yard, which was his 18^th on the season. That homer tied Michael Ambort's school record for home runs in a season that was set in 2005. The junior is also the first 60-RBI Cardinal since Ambort's 63 in 2007.
 
For the second time in as many games, Russell and Trey Silvers hit back-to-back jacks. In the second inning, the two of them put the Cardinals up 7-0. Lamar threw three on the board in the first inning on two bases-loaded walks to Jacoby Middleton and Robin Adames- who also homer in the contest.
 
Middleton's walk pushed across Stijn van der Meer, who led off the game with a single through the right side, and Adames scored Nash, who reached on a single through the left side. After Nash scored, McDowell was able to touch the plate on a wild pitch, all three runs were with two outs. Van der Meer, Nash and McDowell loaded the bases with three-straight singles.
 
In the second inning, van der Meer kicked off the rally again with one-out single to central, and he took second when the  'Jacks walked Nash. After the second out of the inning was recorded on a fly out, Russell popped a three-run bomb followed by Silvers' solo shot. To that point, all seven runs were scored with two outs.
 
The third inning was the first time LU scored a run with less than outs, all because Adames trounced full count pitch for a lead off blast to center field. It was his third homer of the series and pushed his season tally to six. Two batters later, Brendan Satran crushed his third shot of the series on a 1-0 count pitch to the same place Adames did. It was Satran's fifth homer of the year.
 
Van der Meer followed Satran with a walk, his third time to be on base in three innings, but was rolled up in a fielder's choice from Nash. McDowell stepped to the plate and drove one over the right center field wall to make it 11-0, again with two outs. Russell and Silvers followed with back-to-back singles and Middleton scored Russell, but was called out trying to stretch a single into a double.
 
Billy Love (6-4) had another great day on the hill; he allowed only three baserunners (two hits and a walk). The first runner was a leadoff single in the first inning from Tyler Kendrick, but he was rolled into a double play by Nick Ramos. With one out in the second frame, he walked Connor Fikes, but he too was rolled in a twin-killing.
 
Eric DeJesus led off the third with a double to right field, but an infield popup and back-to-back strikeouts ended that threat.  Love finished the game with nine-straight retired and total five innings of scoreless work and three strikeouts.
 
Enrique Oquendo entered the contest in the sixth and gave up a single and walk in two innings, but no runner was able to get to second on him. He recorded two strikeouts, including the final one to Zac Michener that ended the game.
 
Only DeJesus was able to get into scoring position for SFA against LU pitching Saturday afternoon.
 
Just like in the first two games of the series, Stephen F. Austin ran through six pitchers, and starter Jarred Green (4-6) was tagged with the loss. He pitched only 1 1/3 innings and gave up five runs on four hits and three walks. Austin Hagy, fifth pitcher for the 'Jacks, came in and settled it down with three perfect innings of work.
 
For the Cardinals, it was the first time since 2009 that they scored 10 or more runs three straight games. Then it was a 14-2 win over Northwestern State and an 11-10 and 12-7 win over Louisiana-Monroe.
 
Tickets to the Southland Conference Tournament are already on sale. An all-tournament pass, which allows entry into all 15 possible games of the tournament, is $60.  A single-day pass, which will include four games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a possibility of three game on  Saturday, is $18 each day.
 
Children 5 and under will be admitted free of charge, while students at Southland Conference Institutions will also gain free admission with a valid student ID.
 
Tickets are available for purchase at the Constellation Field box office, by phone at 281-240-4487 and online at sugarlandskeeters.com. Online orders are subject to a $2 service charge per ticket.