BEAUMONT, Texas - With its sights set on a return to the win column, Lamar University (6-9) will hit the road Tuesday morning for a battle of the birds in Houston. Big Red will travel to Reckling Park for a non-conference game at Rice (7-10). The Cardinals and Owls will meet for the 131st time Tuesday with LU head coach Will Davis looking for his second win in the series and new Rice coach Matt Bragga looking for his first.

The game will be streamed on C-USA TV and broadcast on KLVI AM 560 by Voice of the Cardinals Harold Mann.

THE LAST TIME OUT - STEPHEN F. AUSTIN

Early offense from their opponent proved too much to overcome for Lamar University on Friday in its Southland Conference opener against Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks scored three runs combined in the first two innings and stifled all but one inning of offense for the Cardinal bats with a 4-1 decision favoring SFA.

Three unearned runs on two errors were the difference Saturday between Lamar and SFA. The Cardinals and Lumberjacks each had eight hits but SFA had no errors to LU's two in a 4-2 victory for the Lumberjacks.

With a stellar relief effort from the bullpen and 10 Cardinal hits Lamar University had several chances to win its series finale Sunday against SFA. The Cards scored three runs and had the game-tying run at the plate in the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings but couldn't even it up. LU ultimately fell to SFA 5-3.

Lamar's bullpen combined for 15.1 innings out of 27 innings for Lamar and allowed just 11 hits, one earned run, and three walks while striking out seven.

Durand led the charge offensively with four hits in seven at-bats, hitting .571. George hit .417 with five hits, a run, an RBI, and a walk, and McCall had four hits with a .444 batting average and two RBIs.

Rice

Starters:
LHP Dylan Johnson (0-1, 9.64 ERA) vs. TBA

Series Record
All-Time Series: Rice leads 82-48
At Vincent-Beck Stadium: Rice leads 32-28
At Reckling Park: Rice leads 48-20
At Neutral Site: Rice leads 2-0
Will Davis vs. Rice: 1-3
Bragga vs. Lamar: N/A
Last Meeting: March 7, 2017 (Lamar wins 10-4 at LU)

Matt Bragga is in his first season as head coach of the Rice Owls, taking over the program after Wayne Graham's retirement. Bragga did a remarkable job at Tennessee Tech, accruing 446 wins in 15 seasons. He was a four-time Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year and took the Golden Eagles to three NCAA Tournament appearances. He won six OVC championships in the last 10 years and had 40 or more wins in four of those six seasons. The Golden Eagles had 53 wins last year and made the NCAA Super Regionals for the first time. Bragga also recently celebrated his 600th win as a head coach in Rice's 5-3 win at the University of Houston on March 5.

Rice is 7-10 this year with a series win over Rhode Island, a 25-5 blowout of Prairie View A&M, a 6-3 win against #12 Baylor, a 12-2 win against #18 TCU, and wins over Houston and Oklahoma. The Owls had one loss to Rhode Island, a 4-11 loss to #14 Texas, a 5-16 loss to #24 Arizona, and were swept by #25 UC Irvine at home.Oklahoma also took two of three from Rice this past weekend.

The Owls lead the Conference USA in bases-on-balls with 76, an average of almost five walks a game. Their batting average is .274, sixth-best in the C-USA, and their offense averages 6.7 runs a game, the third-most in the conference. The Owls are prone to strikeouts though with 166 already this year, an average of 9.76 a game. Their pitching staff has a team ERA of 4.50, the eighth-best in the C-USA, and their 9.7 strikeouts per nine innings is the second-most in the conference. Rice's pitchers have surrendered 70 walks this year, an average of four per game.

Justin Collins and Trei Cruz are tied for second in the C-USA in walks drawn with 13 apiece, and Cruz also leads his team and the conference in home runs this year with five. Cruz has scored 17 runs and collected 22 RBIs and is slugging .580. Andrew Dunlap also has a crazy amount of RBIs for this early in the season with 17, and he's slugging .583 so far this year. Bradley Gneiting, Braden Comeaux, and Cade Edwards are all hitting over .300.

Rice's starter for Tuesday's game has not yet been announced.

Lamar Quick Hits

• Lamar's offense is considerably healthier than this point last season. The Cardinals have already matched their 2018 home run total with 12 this year and bested their 2018 triples total with five so far this year as opposed to just four all of last year.
• Avery George has started every game this season and is hitting extremely well with a .386 batting average. He's collected 22 hits with four RBIs and 11 runs scored and he's drawn nine walks while striking out just seven times. The
  sophomore from Humble, Texas, has reached base in 25 consecutive games dating back to last season and is also riding an 14-game hit streak.
• Robin Adames comes into the season with 195 career hits, just 62 hits away from breaking the Lamar University career hits record. The senior from The Bronx, N.Y., has averaged 65 hits a season in his three previous years at LU. He currently has 214 hits, needing just 43 more.
• He's also on pace to capture the Cardinal career at-bats record which currently stands at 831. Adames has 684 at-bats in his career.
• Between D1Baseball, Perfect Game, and the SLC, seven Cardinals have received all-conference preseason honors. Robin Adames, JC Correa, Cole Coker, Ryan Erickson, Jason Blanchard, Jorge Gutierrez, and Dylan Johnson were picked by those organizations as either All-Conference players or Top MLB Prospects in the SLC.