BEAUMONT, Texas — The Lamar University Cardinals will now focus on the week ahead after wrapping up a three-game series at McNeese.

To begin the week, LU travels to Tulane for a midweek Tuesday contest before returning home to take on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for a three-game series beginning Friday.

GREEN WAVE AT A GLANCE

Tulane is 15-5 overall while sporting an 11-3 record at home.

The Green Wave recently took two out of three from Xavier, winning Game 3 by a score of 5-4 on Sunday after taking the lead in the bottom of the seventh off a sacrifice bunt.

Tulane began the season on a four-game winning streak, sweeping Omaha in a three-game series and then beating Southeastern Louisiana, 5-3, on the road.

Junior infielder Connor Rasmussen is leading the offense with a .365 average, 27 hits and 20 RBIs.

Redshirt senior Matthias Haas, who is listed as an infielder and outfielder, has a team-high .603 slugging percentage with a team-best 11 doubles to go along with 24 hits and 18 RBIs.

Tulane is hitting a collective .274 with 179 hits, 13 home runs and 135 RBIs.

Lefthander and senior Luc Fladda leads the pitching staff with 37 strikeouts in 28.2 innings pitched. Fladda is 1-1 with a 4.40 ERA.

In his last start on Friday against Xavier, he struck out nine batters in seven innings of work.

Righthander and senior Trey Cehajic sports a 3-1 record with a 2.57 ERA in 21 innings pitched while he has fanned 20 batters.

Junior Michael Lombardi, a reliever and infielder, has five saves this season as he has tallied a 0.90 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched.

The Green Wave pitching staff has an ERA of 4.07 with 217 strikeouts.

Head coach Jay Uhlman took over the helm on June 7, 2022, after three seasons as an assistant coach, recruiting coordinator and interim head coach.

Tulane went 36-26 overall and 15-12 in the American Athletic Conference in 2024, winning the AAC tournament title game for the second year in a row.

The Green Wave traveled to Corvallis, Ore. for the NCAA regionals.

In 2023, the program defeated ECU to claim the AAC tournament title to qualify for the Baton Rouge, La. regional. That season Tulane finished 19-42 overall.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

This will be the 21st meeting between LU and Tulane.

The first series meeting was on April 23, 1973, in New Orleans, La. The Green Wave are 14-6 against the Cards.

The last meeting between both teams came five years ago when the squads met for a two-game series in March 2020.

THE CARDS

Damian Ruiz has reached base safely in 21 straight games.

The last time a Cardinal reached base safely in as many games was Matthew McDonald in 2022.

Ruiz is ranked third in the Southland Conference in batting average (.412), first in runs scored (30), second in hits (35), first in doubles (12), ninth in triples (2), eighth in on base + slugging percentage (OPS) (1.156) and fifth in at bats (85).

Riding a four-game hitting streak, Ruiz has gone 8 for 19 during that span with two doubles, a triple and three RBIs.

Ruiz is tied for 15th in NCAA Division I in hits and tied for fourth in doubles. Ruiz also leads LU with 12 multi-hit games.

Matt Ryan is seventh in the SLC in on base percentage (.489). 

Brayden Evans is riding a nine-game hitting streak, going 16 for 35 (.457) during the stretch with 13 RBIs and three home runs.

Evans homered twice in Game 2 against McNeese.

He ranks 10th in the SLC in OPS (1.116), sixth in hits (30), 10th in walks (14), fourth in runs batted in (24), seventh in doubles (7) and tied for fifth in home runs (5).

Evans has nine multi-RBI games.

The LU offense is fourth in NCAA Division I in hits with 209, six hits behind the nation's leader UCF with 215.

Heladio Moreno is fourth in the SLC in batting average (.408) while Tab Tracy is seventh (.390).

Moreno is also ranked fourth in hits in the SLC with 31 while Tracy is seventh with 30. Moreno is riding a six-game hitting streak, going 11 for 25 (.440) during the span.

Zane Spinn has put together a five-game hitting streak. He has tallied eight RBIs during the stretch.

The Cards rank second in the SLC in batting with a .320 average while they lead the conference with 240 hits and rank third with 154 RBIs.

Riely Hunsaker is ninth in the SLC with a 2.84 ERA while Peyton Havard is tied for seventh in strikeouts (28).

Hunsaker is also tied for fourth in the SLC in batters struck out looking (9) while he is ninth in innings pitched (25.1).

The LU pitching staff leads the conference in strikeouts with 192.