BEAUMONT, Texas - Heading back out on the road after a three-game sweep of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Lamar University (13-23) will begin its 2,000+ mile, nine-game road trip on Tuesday with a non-conference matchup at the University of Texas (23-15). First pitch at UFCU Disch-Falk Field and on the Longhorn Network is at 6:30 p.m.

THE LAST TIME OUT - TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI (APRIL 12-14)

The Cardinals dominanted from the first pitch on Friday through the final out on Sunday in a sweep of the Islanders. Big Red outscored A&M-Corpus Christi 26-8 across three games and out-hit the Islanders 38-23.

Noah Sills threw arguably the best games of his Cardinal career Friday in Lamar University's 9-1 win over A&M-CC at Vincent-Beck Stadium. The Cardinals scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to put the game well out of reach of the Islanders.

Sending baseballs over the outfield wall on three separate occasions, Lamar used dominant pitching from Jason Blanchard and big hits to win 7-3 over A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday.

Grason Wright threw a seven-inning, five-hit game in Sunday's 10-4 finale over A&M-Corpus Christi with just two earned runs. He struck out two while walking two and faced the minimum in the first, second, and fourth innings. Jack Dallas got his second save of the season with a three-hit, no-run performance through two innings.

"We talked a lot about how depleted we are by the injuries to our bullpen, and any time you only have to use five pitchers on the weekend it really helps things out when you're dealing with that injury bug. That all starts with great starting pitching, and I think we got it all three days. I thought Grason had some bad luck with a couple of errors in there, and the two innings he had to minimize he came through and kept us right in the game. I can't say enough about his performance," said head coach Will Davis. "Obviously we had a lot of clutch hits as well, especially with Logan Berlof's big two-out home run in the eighth inning that broke up the tie game. I'm extremely proud of how our guys played this weekend."

UP NEXT - AT TEXAS - APRIL 16

Probable Starters (Based on Assumptions by the SID):
Tuesday: RHP Erik Key vs. RHP Matteo Bocchi

Series Record
All-Time Series: Texas leads 33-7
At Vincent-Beck Stadium: Lamar leads 2-0
At UFCU Disch-Falk Field: Texas leads 31-5
At Neutral Site: Texas leads 2-0
Last 10 Years: Texas leads 2-1
Will Davis vs. Texas: 0-2
David Pierce vs. Lamar: 6-6 (4-6 at Sam Houston State, 2-0 at Texas)
Last Meeting: February 21, 2018 (Texas wins 7-2 in Austin, Texas)

David Pierce is in his third season with Texas and holds a 104-62 record in that time including a 33-25 mark in Big 12 play. The seven-year coaching veteran has just north of 300 wins in his career, and has Texas at 23-15 this year despite season-ending injuries to two of his starting position players. The Longhorns are 5-6 against Big 12 competition in 2019 and have wins over Sam Houston State (10-3 on Feb. 26), a sweep of then #2 LSU, two wins over #11 Texas Tech, a loss at Incarnate Word, and a 3-1 win over Rice at home.

The Longhorns are second in the Big 12 and 16th in the nation in bases-on-balls with 199 this season, trailing only Texas Tech in that category in league play, but their batting average of .249 is near the bottom of the Big 12 - seventh out of nine teams (Iowa State doesn't have a baseball program). Pitching has been a huge factor in Texas' 23 wins this year with a 3.77 staff ERA, the fourth-best mark in the conference and 43rd in NCAA Division I baseball. Their 2.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio is fifth in the conference and they average 8.5 strikeouts every nine innings.

Duke Ellis has drawn 36 walks this year, the most in the Big 12 and 11th-best among all NCAA batters. He has nine more than teammate Zach Zubia who also ranks in the Top 100 in walks drawn with 27 this year. Ellis averages nearly a walk a game while leading the team in runs scored (34) and trailing just three Longhorns in hits (33). Austin Todd (38) has the team hits lead but is joined in the 30-hits club by Eric Kennedy (36 hits) and Ryan Reynolds (36 hits). Kennedy's .286 batting average leads the team, and Zubia's four homers is the largest portion of the team's 17 homers this year.

Matteo Bocchi is the projected starter for Texas on Tuesday. He's got a 2.29 ERA through 10 appearances including one start. He holds a 1-0 record and has allowed just 14 hits in 19.2 innings of work while striking out 14.

Lamar Quick Hits

• Logan Berlof has been Lamar's best bat in the last 10 games. He has 15 of his 29 hits on the year in the last 10 games and is hitting at a .441 clip. He's scored 10 runs and driven in another 10 during that time with three walks, two hits-by-pitch, and five strikeouts. He's reached base nine games in a row.
   
• Robin Adames needs just 22 more hits to capture the LU career record. He has 235 entering Tuesday's game. He also needs just 47 RBIs for the career RBI record and 15 more homers for the career home run record.
   
• JC Correa has wowed at short and at the plate. The junior transfer from Alvin Community College has a .299 batting average, third on the team, and leads the team in RBIs with 24. In his last 10 games he has seven RBIs with 15 hits. He's homered four times and is the toughest on the team to strike out with just one strikeout every 9.2 at-bats. That ranks sixth in the Southland Conference and 125th in the NCAA.
   
• Avery George is fourth in the Southland Conference and 71st in the NCAA this year with 50 hits so far. He was riding a 20-game hit streak from Feb. 16 through March 22 and tied the school record for the reached-base streak at 32 games.

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