NEW ORLEANS – Leading 6-4 heading into the last half inning of regulation, bad luck again caught up to Lamar University (14-29, 6-17 SLC) on Saturday. The Cardinals allowed two runs in the ninth and one in the 10th to the University of New Orleans (21-22, 7-13 SLC) to fall 7-6.
 
Starter Jason Blanchard threw seven and a third innings of six-hit, three earned-run baseball. He struck out six while walking two. Jack Dallas relieved Blanchard and gave up just one earned run, but two unearned scored on an error. He struck out two in 2.1 innings.
 
New Orleans drew first blood with a big first inning. A five-pitch, one-out walk reached second on a fielder's choice that failed to get an out, and a homer two pitches later scored three for New Orleans – two of those runs earned. UNO led 3-0 through the first two innings.
 
Lamar got its first hit of the day in the top of the third. Anthony Quirion took one pitch before blasting a ball over the left field fence, re-taking the team lead in home runs with his eighth of the year. The Cards went down in order after that at-bat, but Blanchard stranded a two-out single with his first strikeout of the day to keep Big Red within two runs of New Orleans, 3-1, through three innings.
 
Neither team could score over the next three innings with Blanchard coming alive, striking out four of the next 10 batters he faced. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings he allowed just one base runner, a six-pitch walk. The Cardinals got a two-out single from JC Correa in the fourth, a lead-off hit-by-pitch of Logan Berlof in the fifth, and a two-out single by Cole Girouard in the sixth but couldn't capitalize in any of those chances.
 
Big Red started pushing down the gas in the seventh. Correa opened the inning with a lead-off homer on a 3-1 count, then the Cards loaded the bases with a Berlof single and walks of Quirion and Reese Durand. Jorge Gutierrez skied one for what appeared would be a sac fly, but the Privateer center fielder had the ball hit the outside of his glove. The ball dropped and froze Durand at first, providing an opportunity for a fielder's choice. Gutierrez reached first, Durand was thrown out at second, Quirion pushed to third, and Berlof came home to tie the game. Heading into the bottom of the seventh the score was tied at 3-3. A one-out triple by the Privateers was stranded by Blanchard's sixth strikeout and a 6-3 grounder and the game stayed knotted at 3-3 through seven.
 
Lamar took its first lead of the day in the eighth. Girouard drew a seven-pitch walk and was joined on the base paths by Coker who earned his first hit of the game and his 50th of the year on a single through the right side. Correa worked to a 1-2 count and then changed the game with his second homer of the day and seventh of the year. Big Red led 6-3 heading into the bottom frame of the eighth, and though New Orleans got one back in the second half of the inning, Lamar led by two with just one inning to go.
 
Lamar went 1-2-3 in the ninth and bad luck struck again in what was supposed to be the final outs of the game. A lead-off single reached second on a two-out error and a two-out double tied the game, forcing extras.
 
The Cardinals battled in the top of the 10th but couldn't quite find an offensive answer, and in the bottom of the inning New Orleans struck for the final time. The Privateers got a lead-off single before Jack Dallas responded with a strikeout. Another single put two on base before a flyer to left put LU within an out of the 11th inning. Dallas battled to a 1-1 count before a ball put in play scored the game-winning run for UNO. The Privateers won 7-6 in 10 innings.

This marks the 15th time this season that Lamar has lost by two or fewer runs.
 
The series finale is slated for a 1 p.m. start on Sunday with Grason Wright on the mound for Lamar.
 
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