NEW ORLEANS – Three errors in Wednesday's game at Tulane (5-3) proved costly for Lamar University (3-7) as the Cardinals fell 6-2 to the Green Wave. LU's bats were considerably more active with six hits on Wednesday, five more than Lamar's previous two games combined.

"I think we just went through a pretty brutal stretch of our schedule here, playing a lot of games in a short amount of time," said head coach Will Davis. "The season isn't even 14 days old yet and we've already played 10 games. With an inexperienced team I thought it was important to play a lot of games before conference, and I think our pitching is only going to get better when we can ask guys to do less. Our team is just young. We've played nine true freshmen, and the jump to Division I baseball is pretty big for them. But I think we're still a good team, and all of our goals are still ahead of us."

The Cards jumped out to an early lead with aggression, both at the plate and verbally in the dugout. With one out Cole Coker singled through the left side, and the sophomore advanced to second on a wild pitch. Robin Adames stroked a two-out single through the right side to plate Coker, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first. The lead-off batter for Tulane hit what should have been a deep fly out into driving winds in right field, which tied the game at 1-1. Taylor Rich and Tulane's Chase Solesky otherwise held the two teams off the board through the first three innings, with both programs stranding runners in the early goings.

After Cole Secrest singled with one out in the top of the inning and expired on a double play, Tulane hit back-to-back doubles to open the bottom of the fourth inning, and a 6-3 grounder was hit just hard enough to score a second run in the inning. The Green Wave led 3-1 after four.

Ryan Erickson struck out the first two batters he faced, but the second struck out batter managed to reach safely when the strikeout turned into a wild pitch. That runner eventually came back to bite the Cardinals when he scored on a sac fly that would've been the third out of the inning. Two singles and a hit batter scored another run for Tulane, who now led 5-1 heading into the sixth.
Both Solesky's replacement Ben White and Erickson's reliver Marcus Olivarez went 1-2-3 in the sixth, keeping the score 5-1 going into the seventh.

Lamar's offense struck again in the top of the seventh. Adames wore one to take a free base with one out, and a single by Chase Whetsel and some impressive running by the junior from The Bronx, N.Y., put Adames on third with two outs. Chase Kemp swung at the first pitch he saw and smacked it through the left side, scoring Adames and putting Whetsel in scoring position. Rhett McCall came to the plate representing the tying run, but a great play by the Green Wave third baseman turned a hit into a fielder's choice, ending the Lamar threat. As the fans stood and stretched, Tulane led Lamar 5-2.

"I think Whetsel can definitely help us," said Davis. "He's an explosive player. He's got power for a small frame and he can really run as we saw with his infield hit today. He also made a great catch [Tuesday] with the bases loaded that saved three runs. Secrest has been great for us, and Chase Kemp has just had some bad luck early on, even today. He was second in the state of Texas in home runs last year and it's going to click for him."

Two errors and two doubles scored one more for Tulane in the bottom of the inning, giving the Green Wave a 6-2 lead that they would hold the rest of the game. Tanner Driskill took the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning and impressed once again, forcing two grounders and a pop out in Lamar's final defensive inning.

"Pitching is going to keep us in it until these young guys figure out the collegiate game," said Davis. "We're not going to get dejected; losing hurts but we're going to keep pushing and we know that better days are ahead."

Lamar returns to action at home on Friday with the first of three games against UTRGV. The Cardinals will throw Jace Campbell against the Vaqueros' Carter Johnson with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m.