BEAUMONT, Texas – A familiar foe visits Vincent-Beck Stadium at 6 p.m. Wednesday, but in a very unfamiliar way. Southland Conference rival Northwestern State and Lamar University baseball will square off in a three-game set that set will spans two weeks and be in non-conference action.
 
Wednesday – the lone game this week against the Demons (5-13, 1-2 Southland) - will be LU's Social Media Scavenger Hunt. LU Athletics will hide four prizes throughout the stadium, and during the game will tweet from @LamarAthletics four clues that lead to the prizes.
 
Once Wednesday's game is played, the final two of the series will be in Natchitoches, La. on March 28-29 at 6:30 p.m. at Brown-Stroud Field.
 
In the middle of that series, the Cardinals will host (11-10, 1-5 Southland) Incarnate Word (13-8, 4-2) in their Southland Conference home opener.  LU opened league play with a brutal stretch that had it on the road against the two teams atop the Southland Conference preseason polls (Sam Houston and Southeastern La.). Friday's contest – slated for 6 p.m. – will be the first weekend contest LU has played at The Beck since Feb. 26.
 
NSU – currently on a season-long seven-game road trip - dropped its first league series to Nicholls, and a sweep at nationally-ranked Oklahoma State has the Demons on a five-game skid. They took their first series of the year against Cincinnati, but since has lost series to Arkansas State and Kansas and midweek contests to Louisiana-Lafayette and Kansas State.
 
Hitting .206 as a team, the Demons are led in in batting average by Cade Jones at .279 (12-of-43). David Fry tops the team in home runs with five, which is tied for second in the league with LU's Reid Russell and two others. Matt Valdez and Fry are tied for the NSU's lead in runs scored, 14 apiece.
 
The team averages 4.6 runs a game with 40 extra base hits, 26 doubles, three triple and 11 home runs.
 
The Demons will start the game with Dan Hlad (0-1) on the hill. Hlad has a 6.88 earned run mark in seven appearances and two starts. He has 17 innings of work with 13 earned runs allowed, nine walks and 11 strikeouts. He is a part of a part of a pitching staff that has a 7.41 earned run average in 160 1/3 frames on the season. NSU has 132 earned runs allowed, 78 walks and 117 strikeouts.
 
Hlad will be matched up against LU's starter Galen Andrews (1-0) in his first start of the season. The senior has 11 appearances on the year with a 3.24 ERA in 16 2/3 innings. He's allowed six runs on the year with five walks and eight strikeouts; he also has a save in 2017.
 
As a staff, the Cardinals have a 4.03 earned run average in 183.0 innings of work. The unit has struck out 159 batters and walked 80.
 
LU's offense comes in after a 13-run outburst at Southeastern Louisiana, led by  Russell and Robin Adames' home runs. Russell lifted his fifth homer as a two-run shot that tied the finale at 4-4 before Adames' grand slam made it a 13-4 contest one inning later.
 
The pair leads LU in hitting, on-base percentage, slugging and runs batted in. Russell is hitting .364 with 20 RBI followed by Adames' .358 average and 19 RBI. The two trail Cutter McDowell's 21 runs, Russel with 20 and Adames at 15.
 
McDowell is coming off a dynamic week against Prairie View A&M, Texas Southern and the Lions. He finished the week with a .400 (8-of-20) average with five extra base hits and 10 runs batted in. He drew four walks in the five games and had a team-best .520 on-base percentage.
 
Incarnate Word has a similar situation with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The two will compete as Southland foes out of conference play Tuesday night. The Cardinals of San Antonio defeated both Abilene Christian and Central Arkansas in league series, 2-1.
 
UIW has a team batting average of .289, behind Southland Conference leader Kyle Genenbacher's .439 mark (11-of-57). He's scored 11 runs on the year and knocked in another six. David Anaya is the Cardinals' leader in RBI at 14, followed by Kyle Bergeron and Ryan Gonzalez each with 12. Mark Whitehead has 24 runs on the year, which is second place in the conference.
 
Neither team has announced starters for the weekend, but UIW has a team-ERA of 6.16 in 187 innings pitched. Bernie Martinez (3-0), who has been UIW's second game starter for most of the season, has a 1.15 ERA– second in the league – in 31 1/3 frames. In five starts, he's struck out 22 batters and walked 12.
 
John Shull (2-2) has been a weekend starter for the entire year and has a 5.40 ERA in 23 1/3 innings.
 
The Voice of the Cardinals Harold Mann will carry Friday and Sunday's game on KLVI 560AM as well as on the BigRedSN.com (all games).
 
After LU's return trip to Northwestern State, it will host Houston Baptist for a three-game Southland set that starts on March 31 at 6 p.m.