BEAUMONT, Texas - Finding a lot of contact but not executing in one or two moments cost Lamar University (9-16, 2-8 SLC) on Friday against Nicholls State University (14-13, 6-4 SLC). The Cardinals out-hit the Colonels 11-5 and led most of the game, but a late-inning outburst by Nicholls sealed a 4-2 victory over the Cards.
Noah Sills was once again dominant through most of the game, going seven and two-thirds innings with five strikeouts, four hits, and no walks while allowing just two earned runs. The senior from Honolulu, Hawaii, faced the minimum in the second, third, fifth, and sixth innings and was a pitch away from the final out of the eighth before a soft hit ball blooped into shallow left field for a hit. Back-to-back hit batters from Sills and reliever
Ryan Erickson loaded the bases with two outs and a wild pitch and a single emptied the bases and put Nicholls up 4-2. Arguably all four of Nicholls' runs could be attributed to Cardinal errors with two errors in the first putting a runner in scoring position and the three runs in the eighth coming on a wild pitch, hit batters, and a mental error "hit".
Lamar had runners in the first, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth innings but converted those into runs only in the third.
Anthony Quirion collected the first of his three hits in a one-out single that reached second on a single from
Avery George. Both runners advanced on a single from
Cole Girouard to load the bases, and a two-out single from
JC Correa tied the junior from Santa Isabel, P.R., for the team lead in RBIs with his 15th and 16th of the year. Lamar led 2-1 after three innings. Double plays hurt the Cardinal offense in the fourth and fifth innings.
George, Girouard (3x), Correa,
Robin Adames (2x),
Chase Kemp, and Quirion (3x) had Lamar's 11 hits in the game. Girouard now has a .389 batting average against teams from the state of Louisiana with 35 hits in 90 career at-bats.
The series continues on Saturday with a tentative starting time of noon. Weather could impact the Cardinal schedule so stay tuned to LamarCardinals.com for updates.
Jason Blanchard (2-3, 2.43 ERA) is set to face RHP Jacob Bedevian (2-1, 3.12 ERA) on Saturday.
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