HOUSTON, Texas – 2-3 so far through its 12-game road trip, Lamar University's baseball team will return to action Wednesday in a mid-week, non-conference stopover at Rice University. First pitch at Reckling Park is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

The Last Time Out – Nicholls
Scoring the most runs in a single inning since April 21, 2013, the Cards jumped on Nicholls early with 12 runs in the second inning of a 16-9 victory on Friday. Big Red's bats cooled after that offensive explosion though; a pitcher's duel that was tied 1-1 through seven innings coming down to a five-run bottom of the eighth inning that gave Nicholls a 6-1 win on Saturday. The series finale came down to early errors by the Cards that gave the Colonels just enough breathing room to survive two different rallies and escape with a 5-2 win over Lamar. Ryan Erickson held the Colonels scoreless the final four innings of Sunday's game.
 
Going back to last Tuesday's game at LSU, Cole Girouard hit .522 with 12 hits including two doubles. He scored six runs and had six RBIs, walking once and striking out just twice. Girouard wasn't the only Cardinal with a decent stretch at the plate either; four Cards hit over .300 on the week including Girouard, Adames, Philip Ingram, and Chad McKinney. McKinney had one of the best weeks of his career with six hits, including two doubles and a triple, four RBIs, and six runs scored. He's now one of just two active Cardinals with a triple in their career (Cole Coker is the other – he has three).
 
Tanner Driskill improved to 5-3 on the year and 5-0 as the Friday starter – his one loss since moving to the starting role came on a Thursday – a 7-4 loss in which he pitched a complete game.
 
Lamar vs. Rice
 
Series Record
All-Time Series: Rice leads 82-48
At Vincent-Beck: Rice leads 29-28
At Reckling Park: Rice leads 53-20
At Neutral Site: N/A
Will Davis vs. Rice: Rice leads 2-1
Wayne Graham vs. Lamar: Rice leads 37-18

The Rice Rematch
Just under two months have passed since Rice traveled to Lamar on March 7, a game in which four Cardinal errors allowed four Owls to score unearned in a 6-2 decision that went in favor of Rice. It was the 130th meeting between the two teams, and gave Rice a one-game advantage in the series at Vincent-Beck (29-28).
 
Big Red has played 31 games since that first meeting and is hitting considerably better (.207 then to .237 now), and two current Cardinal starters (Cole Girouard and Avery George) didn't appear in that game. Philip Ingram and Logan LeJeune started against Rice the first time around but were a combined 1-of-8 with four strikeouts.
 
The Owls are 17-25-2 overall and 7-12-2 in Conference USA games. Wayne Graham has been the skipper of Rice for the past 27 years, and has accrued a 1,164-522-2 mark with a 2003 College World Series title in his time there.
 
Rice has the third-highest batting average in the C-USA this season (.287), and average 5.3 runs per game (ninth in the C-USA). The Owls' pitching staff has a 4.63 ERA, sixth in the league.
 
Ford Proctor has had a prodigious junior season with the best batting average in the league (.390 – 25th in the NCAA) and his 30 walks this year are seventh in the C-USA. He's totaled 67 hits to lead his team and the conference, and his .587 slugging percentage and .471 OBP are both near the top of the C-USA as well (both fifth). Ryan Chandler (.365) and Braden Comeaux (.333) are also hitting over .300 on the year.
 
 Similar to the four pitchers it used at Lamar on March 7, Rice is expected to throw several in Wednesday's matchup against LU's starter, RHP Jace Campbell (1-7, 4.34 ERA).
 
News and Notes on Lamar 

• Lamar has had to count on freshmen in big moments this year. The Cardinals have started first-year college players 117 times this season compared to just 37 by their opponents. On the mound Big Red has started freshmen four times while facing eight opposing rookie starters.
   
• There's still plenty of time for Lamar to fight its way into the postseason. The Cards trail eighth-place Nicholls by two and a half games but have six opportunities to make up that ground. The Colonels play at SFA this weekend and will end the year at New Orleans. The Privateers are also trying to make up ground on Nicholls; they trail the Colonels by a half-game.
   
• Philip Ingram has a 24-game reached base streak, the longest active streak in the Southland and the second-longest career streak among active Cardinals behind only Robin Adames, who reached 27 games in a row from May 13, 2016 to March 17, 2017.