NATCHITOCHES, La. – The Cardinals issued 11 free passes and booted four balls defensively when the Lamar University baseball team dropped its first contest in six games at Northwestern State in a 11-9 loss in non-conference action at Brown-Stroud Field Tuesday night.
 
In all, LU walked seven batters on balls, hit four more and had four infield miscues. Four of the free passes ended up as runs, two led off an inning, and three were with two outs. The errors had LU with two unearned runs.
 
Still, the Cardinals (15-11) had it tied at 7-7, but a two-out walk in the sixth and error in the seventh allowed the Demons (7-16) to score one in each. Reid Russell pushed across Cutter McDowell in the top of the eighth to cut it to 9-8, but Lamar issued three free passes along with another error and gave up two more runs that put the game out of reach.
 
The Cardinals put together a four-run frame in the fourth inning, all with no outs. Grant DeVore led it off with a double down the left field line and Cutter McDowell traded places with him on an RBI-double in almost the exact same place. Cole Coker put men on first and second when he reached on an error, and the bases were loaded with a walk issued to Russell.
 
With the bases loaded, Robin Adames hit a liner that tipped off of the glove of center fielder Kwan Adkins while he was still running toward the wall. Trey Silvers had the big blow of the inning with a double to right center field that scored Coker and Russell.
 
The Demons answered in the next frame with their own four-run inning, largely allowed on free passes. Both Lenni Kunert and Hunter Uzzle both drew walks to lead off the inning, and both scored on a double to the left field wall from Caleb Ricca. Within three batters, Adkins and Tyler Smith were plunked with pitches that loaded the bases. An infield error gave NSU its third run of the inning and a pop fly in the outfield allowed Adkins to score the final run of the frame.
 
The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead to start with one in the first inning and two in the second. Four singles in five batters had LU with a big threat. McDowell led it off with a single up the middle and Adames' single through the right side scored him.
 
Catcher Chad McKinney led off the second with a double down the left field line. He took third on a sacrifice bunt from DeVore. McDowell reached on an error on the infield that scored McKinney and scored on a wild pitch after a single from Coker moved him over.
 
Much like they did in the fourth inning, NSU answered back with three runs in the second inning.
 
NSU's Devin Bear (2-0) pitched his longest career outing and held LU's offense off balance. He surrendered two runs on four walks, walked none and struck out four. Brent Janak (2-1) was issued the loss on 2 2/3 innings of work. He gave up two runs, one earned, on three hits. His outing was the longest of the game for the Cardinals.
 
McDowell continued his tear at the plate with his first four-hit game of the 2017 campaign and fifth multi-hit game in the last 11. He was 4-of-5 with four runs scored and one RBI. Adames, Silvers and McKinney – in his first career start – all had two hits apiece. Collectivity, LU recorded 15 base hits and outhit the Demons' 11. It's on the third time this year LU outhit the opponent and lost.
 
Spencer Goodwin led NSU at the plate with three hits in five at-bats. He had two RBI and one run scored.
 
The two will square off again at 6 p.m. Wednesday night, weather permitting. Drew Van Winkle (0-0, 2.70 earned run average) will match up with Austin Reich (0-1, 67.50), both are right-handers.