BEAUMONT, Texas - Hitting the road again for a mid-week series, Lamar University (7-8, 0-3 SLC) will look to bounce back Tuesday and Wednesday at #23 Tulane University (13-2, 0-0 American). The Cardinals are hoping to snap a three-game skid from this weekend and stop a four-game losing streak at Tulane.

Lamar at Tulane - March 10 & 11 - Greer Field at Turchin Stadium

Probable Starters
Tuesday - Lamar's LHP Grason Wright (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. RHP Clifton Slagel (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Wednesday - Lamar's LHP Josh Hranicky (0-1, 9.00 ERA) vs. LHP Luke Jannetta (3-0, 0.00 ERA)

Series Record
All-Time Series: Tulane leads 12-6 (last meeting - Tulane wins 22-10 in New Orleans on Feb. 20, 2019)
Lamar vs. Tulane at Vincent-Beck Stadium: Tulane leads 1-0 (last meeting - Tulane wins 3-0 on April 4, 1987)
Lamar vs. Tulane at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium: Tulane leads 10-5 (last meeting - Feb. 20, 2019)
Lamar vs. Tulane at Neutral Site: Tied 1-1 (last meeting - Tulane wins 6-1 at the Winn-Dixie Showdown in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Feb. 18, 1995)
Last 10 Games: Tulane leads 8-2
Win Streak: Tulane has won the last five
Last Lamar Win: Feb. 25, 1994 - Lamar wins 19-9 in Lake Charles, La.
Last Tulane Win: Feb. 20, 2019
Last Matchup: Feb. 20, 2019
Will Davis against Tulane: 0-4
Travis Jewett against Lamar: 4-0

After a dazzling start to the 2020 season, Travis Jewett's Tulane squad is beginning to attract notoriety with a #23 ranking the D1Baseball poll. The Green Wave are 13-2 this season after sweeping Florida Gulf Coast, winning 9-6 at Louisiana-Lafayette, taking two of three at Cal State-Fullerton, sweeping Middle Tennessee, and then demolishing Texas Southern and Southern University this past week. Except for 7-5 loss in the Saturday game of the Cal State-Fullerton series, Tulane's only loss is a 10-1 head scratcher at home to New Orleans on Feb. 26. Jewett is in his fourth season as head coach of the Green Wave and has a 97-92 record in that span with a 34-36 mark in the American Athletic Conference.

The Green Wave are hitting .303 as a team, the 24th-best batting average in the nation, and their pitching staff a 2.47 ERA, the 20th-best mark in the NCAA. Tulane is second in the NCAA in triples with 10 on the year, and their doubles (36), runs scored (112), and sac flies (13) all pace the conference and are Top 25 in the country. Fielding has been a bit of a problem though with a .969 pace, the 115th-best mark in the NCAA.

Ty Johnson paces Tulane and is fifth in the American in batting average (.385), and Jonathon Artigues has six doubles already this season with Hudson Haskin adding another four. Johnson has been averaging a free base on a hit-by-pitch every other game, and Trevor Minder has three homers in 2020. Grant Mathews, the team's RBI leader, is another dangerous bat to watch out for.

Luke Janneta, Wednesday's starter, is currently the NCAA leader in earned run average with a 0.00 throrugh 17.0 innings of work. He's allowed just seven hits during that time for a 3.71 hits-per-nine innings average, the second-best average in the conference, and he's struck out 13 while walking just one. Tuesday's starter, Clifton Slagel, doesn't make anything easier with a 0.00 ERA through 12.0 innings with four hits, two walks, and 15 strikeouts.

The Last Time Out - at Stephen F. Austin - March 6-8

Despite allowing just 4.3 runs a game and getting just one fewer hit than the Lumberjacks, Lamar couldn't quite hold on in any of its games at Stephen F. Austin this past weekend. Cole Girouard had the hottest bat of the series with a .385 average on five hits and two runs scored. The Cardinals also stole seven bases in the series and struck out 30 Jacks. Free bases were the biggest problem for the Cardinals with 16 walks and 10 hits-by-pitch.

Big Red Quick Hits

• Lamar has had just four errors in its first 15 games combined. Last season Lamar had three errors in its first series, and 26 games with two or more errors. This year LU leads the NCAA in fielding percentage with a 0.992 clip, and has fewer errors than any other NCAA Division I school in the country. LU's last error came on Feb. 29 against Akron.
   
• Cole Girouard loves hitting against teams from the state of Louisiana. He has a career .364 batting average against Louisiana teams with 47 hits including eight doubles, a triple, and two home runs. In 2019 he hit.386 against Louisiana teams with 27 hits including three doubles, a triple, and two home runs.
   
• Avery George (.355), Anthony Quirion (.328), and Kelby Weyler (.327) continue to pace Lamar, and Reese Durand (.260) and JC Correa (.239) are just a few hits away from joining the .300 club. George, Quirion, Weyler, Durand, Correa, Chase Kemp, and Cole Girouard all have double-digit hits and all but Girouard are slugging at least .300.
   
• Lamar returns 672 starts in its lineup in 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).
   
• Trevin Michael, Friday's starter, is second in the SLC and 55th in the NCAA in hits allowed per nine innings at 4.50 a game.
   
• Chase Kemp is first in the SLC in walks this season with 13.
   
• Lamar has had three Coles (Coker, Girouard, and Secrest) on the roster since the 2018 season, and Cole Marler is redshirting with the team in 2020. The Cards also have two Zachs (Sweet and Bravo), two Reec(s)es (Reese Durand and Reece Kemp), two Braxtons (Boudoin and Douthit), two Logans (LeJeune and Berlof), and two Kemps (Reece and Chase). In Lamar's game against UTSA, Coker, Girouard, and Secrest all started.
   
• Lamar was picked to finish 12th in the 13-team Southland Conference by both the coach/SID combined poll and by Perfect Game, and finished 10th in the D1Baseball poll. In 2019 the team predicted to finish in 12th place, Stephen F. Austin, finished sixth instead with a 1-2 mark in the SLC tournament, winning its first game against #3 Southeastern Louisiana before being eliminated in the next two games. Lamar was picked to finish anywhere between fifth and seventh  place by D1Baseball, Perfect Game, and the SLC in 2019.