BEAUMONT, Texas - After an almost endless 250+ days of summer ball, fall world series games, weightlifting, and practice upon practice, the baseball team of Lamar University will finally get to take the field Friday for the start of the 2020 season. Big Red will host the Rams of the University of Rhode Island this weekend at Vincent-Beck Stadium.

Fans have a lot to look forward to in this year's team with a good mix of returning student-athletes and new faces donning the Cardinal red. Offensively, Lamar returns 672 starts in its lineup for 2020, the most in the Southland Conference. The next closest team, UIW, returns 548, and is followed by A&M-Corpus Christi (540), McNeese (497), Northwestern State (451), New Orleans (426), Nicholls (418), Central Arkansas (362), Houston Baptist (336), SFA (300), Sam Houston (257), SLU (253), and ACU (211).

Pitching will feature just seven returning Cardinals from 2019, but a bevy of new talent was brought in by the Cardinal coaches for 2020 with 14 of the 19 new players on this year's team appearing on the mound. Those additions include all three starters for this weekend - Trevin Michael, Zach Bravo, and Austin Faith.

JC Correa, returning to Lamar University after being drafted by the Houston Astros in the 38th round of the 2019 MLB Draft, has pulled in considerable notice in the 2020 preseason. The senior from Santa Isabel, P.R., was named a D1Baseball Top 150 Hitter (#126) and Top 30 Second Baseman (27th), was named All-Conference by Perfect Game, and earned First Team All-SLC honors from the league office.

Correa isn't the only Cardinal attracting attention though; Anthony Quirion joined Correa on both the Perfect Game and SLC all-conference teams, Logan Berlof was a Second Team All-SLC representative for Lamar, and no fewer than five Cards appeared on D1Baseball's Top Draft Prospects list. Those names include Bravo (7th, 2020), Correa (15th, 2020), Faith (18th, 2020), Marcus Olivarez (19th, 2020), and Reese Durand (10th, 2021).

Rhode Island - February 14-16

Probable Starters (Based on Assumptions by the SID):
Friday: RHP Trevin Michael (8-2, 2.66 ERA in 2019 at NOC-Tonkawa) vs. RHP Justin Cherry (3-1, 2.93 ERA at Rhode Island)
Saturday: RHP Zach Bravo (7-4, 4.27 ERA in 2019 at Butler CC) vs. RHP Nick Robinson (2-7, 6.13 ERA at Rhode Island)
Sunday: RHP Austin Faith (7-1, 3.08 ERA in 2019 at Navarro JC) vs. RHP Vitaly Jangols (2-4, 6.61 ERA at Rhode Island)

Series Record
All-Time Series: First Meeting
Lamar in First Games against New Opponents: 104-59
Lamar in Opening Day Games: 35-21 (16-4 since 2000, 24-6 since 1990)

Rhode Island enters 2020 in its sixth season under head coach Raphael Cerrato, who has accrued a 136-130-1 record in that time with the Rams. Last season he coached URI to a 24-29 overall record and a 14-9 mark against Atlantic 10 opponents, finishing sixth in the conference. Cerrato received a contract extension through 2023 after collecting five wins over nationally-ranked teams and two A-10 Coach of the Year awards in five seasons.

The Rams return a significant percentage of their 2019 squad, including Friday's starter Justin Cherry. Cherry went 3-1 last season with a 2.93 ERA, and according to D1Baseball has an outstanding changeup, a good curve, and excellent command. Another pitcher to watch out for is Tyler Brosius, a senior submariner. He picked up six saves in 25 appearances last year.

Rhode Island's designated hitter, Jackson Coutts, is the biggest bat for Cardinal fans to pay attention to this weekend. He hit .293 in the Cape Cod summer league, and holds a .281 career average with 100 hits including 16 doubles, a triple, and five home runs. Another Rhodie to keep an eye on is junior Xavier Vargas, the team's batting average leader with a .300 batting average. He had 38 RBIs and a .406 slugging percentage. Austin White scored 36 runs and had a .416 on-base percentage. All told, 11 bats that saw action in at least 20 games return for the Rams. The starting lineup should feature six lefty bats, two righties, and a switch hitter.

Rhode Island was projected to finish seventh in the 2020 A-10 preseason coaches' poll.