BEAUMONT, Texas – Lamar University (4-10) and Rice University (6-7) met for the 130th time in the head-to-head series Wednesday night in Vincent-Beck Stadium. Four errors by the Cardinals led to a 6-2 win by the Owls in a pitching-by-committee game for Big Red.
Eight pitchers appeared for Lamar Wednesday in a scheduled test of LU's arms.
Jason Blanchard appeared first, throwing two innings with two hits, no runs, no walks, and three strikeouts.
AbeRee Hiebert,
Jack Dallas,
Chet Jones,
Marcus Olivarez,
Kristjan Storrie,
Ryan Erickson, and
Tanner Driskill combined for the final seven innings, striking out seven with 10 hits and six runs, only two of which were earned.
Rice scored three runs in the third on two outs after an error, then pushed two more across in the seventh before tallying their final run of the game in the eighth inning.
Despite Rice leading 3-0 from midway through the third inning through the top of the fifth, Lamar seemed just one at-bat away from catching up to or overtaking the Owls for most of the game, with base runners in the second and fourth innings. A run scored by Lamar in the fifth pulled the Cards back into contention.
Logan LeJeune tattooed the first pitch he saw in the fifth inning for a standup double, and during
Grant DeVore's at-bat Roel Garcia, Rice's starter, began to lose steam. He threw two balls, then got to a 2-2 count before throwing a wild pitch that placed LeJeune on third and gave DeVore a 3-2 count. Another wild pitch put DeVore on first and allowed LeJeune to score, pulling Lamar within two. Two deep fly balls ended the Cardinal threat, and after five Rice led 3-1.
A notable defensive play came in the top of the sixth inning. Olivarez relieved Jones and struck out the first batter he faced, but a crafty bunt by Dominic Cox was placed just right, and Rice's left fielder just beat out the throw to first. Bradley Gneiting hit a grounder to DeVore at second on the next pitch, and DeVore stepped on second and threw to first before Gneiting could reach, ending the inning with a double play.
The bottom of the sixth looked promising for Lamar after
Chase Kemp drew a walk with one out. He was advanced to third by
Robin Adames, who smoked a single just right of center field. In what looked like a foul ball,
Cole Coker apparently ground out to first, but it gave Adames time to reach second, placing two runners in scoring position. Unfortunately a popup ended the inning, keeping the score at Rice 3, Lamar 1.
Lamar scored its final run of the evening in the eighth inning. After
Philip Ingram hit a deep fly ball to left field,
Chase Whetsel swung on the first pitch he saw, and knocked the seams off the ball as it crashed into the Floyd's sign on the right field fence. A strikeout and a 1-3 groundout ended the inning with Rice leading 6-2.
Big Red returns to action at home on Friday with the first of a three-game series against Sam Houston State, opening Southland Conference play. Starting pitchers for the three-game series have not yet been announced.
