BEAUMONT, Texas – With the non-conference portion of the schedule behind them, the Lamar University baseball team turns its focus to the second part of the season – conference play. Big Red opened the conference slate last weekend splitting a four-game series against Central Arkansas. The Cardinals now set their sights on Southeastern Louisiana – who finished just a game back of Sam Houston for the 2019 Southland Conference regular season title.
 
The Lions (12-8/.600) enter the weekend series currently tied for fourth in the league standings with a 5-3 (.625) league record. Southeastern is just 1.5 games back of league-leading McNeese, and just two games up on LU who opened its conference play last week.
 
Southeastern has already had a roller coaster ride of a conference season and we're just two weeks into the year. After sweeping 2019 regular season champion Sam Houston to open the year, the Lions then traveled to San Antonio to face UIW, but dropped 3-of-4 to the league's other Cardinals.
 
The Cardinals enter the week ninth in the league standings but are at a bit of a disadvantage compared to the rest of the league. Other than Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, every other league school is preparing to head into their third conference series of the season. The Cardinals (and A&M-Corpus Christi) have only played one series.
 
The Cardinals (10-4/2-2 SLC) have won four of the last six outings. Among the Cardinals 10 wins, LU has four shutout victories with two one-run outings. Big Red enters the series ranked seventh nationally in ERA with a 2.54.
 
The starting rotations have been set for the weekend with the Lions sending Will Kinzeler (Friday/2-1, 2.73), Will Warren (Saturday – Game 1/3-1, 1.44), TBA (Saturday Game 2) and Brennan Stuprich (Sunday/1-1, 3.32) to the mound. The Cardinals will answer with Trevin Michael (Friday/1-0, 2.35), Zach Bravo (Saturday Game 1/2-1, 1.59), Josh Ekness (Saturday Game 2/0-0, 3.38) and Dylan Johnson (Sunday/1-1, 1.69).
 
The series history between the two schools has been a close one with the Cardinals holding a slim five-game advantage all-time, 43-38 (.531). Big Red is 21-18 (.538) all-time when the series moves to Beaumont, but the Cardinals have dropped five of the last six outings. The last time the two schools met on the diamond came during the 2019 season as last season's series was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.
 
Friday's game is slated for a 6 p.m. first pitch from Vincent-Beck Stadium. The first game of the Saturday doubleheader will get under way at 1 p.m. with the two teams closing out the series Sunday at 1 p.m. The Friday and Sunday games will be broadcast live on Newstalk 560 KLVI.