BEAUMONT, Texas — Lamar University takes on an old Western Athletic Conference foe on Tuesday, April 1 when it travels to Stephenville to take on Tarleton State for a midweek contest.
TEXANS AT A GLANCE
Tarleton State enters the game 13-16 overall and 2-1 in WAC play.
The Texans recently dropped a series to California Baptist one game to three, winning game one by a score of 7-6.
Bringing in a 13-10 home record, Tarleton State put together a five-game winning streak with a four-game sweep of the University of New Mexico and an 18-3 midweek victory over Incarnate Word.
Tarleton State is currently 3-1 against Southland Conference teams as it took two of three from Stephen F. Austin.
Senior infielder Slade McCloud leads the offense with 43 hits and a .387 average. He has gone 6 for 12 (.500) in his last three games with a double, home run and four RBIs.
The Texans ranks second in the WAC with a .298 average and 290 hits.
Tyson Drake, a junior outfielder, has a team-high seven home runs, five triples and 26 RBIs.
Junior pitcher Brian Panneton leads the staff with a 3.55 ERA, 30 strikeouts and a 3-1 record in seven starts.
The pitching staff has a 6.06 ERA with 201 strikeouts and four saves.
Head coach Fuller Smith enters his second season at the helm after leading the Texans to a 32-29 overall record and 17-3 conference mark in 2024.
Tarleton State won the WAC conference tournament to become the first Division I program to win a conference tournament title during reclassification.
The Texans were admitted to the WAC in 2020 after competing at the Division II level in the Lone Star Conference for 26 years.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
This is the eighth meeting between the Cards and Tarleton State since March 10, 2021.
LU is 5-2 all-time against the Texans.
The Cards have won the last three meetings over Tarleton State after sweep a three-game series in May 2022 in Beaumont.
MIDWEEK SUCCESS
LU is now 9-0 in midweek contests with only six more remaining. The Cards are 6-0 in midweeks at home and 3-0 when on the road.
Breakdown by conference:
- 3-0 vs. Conference USA
- 3-0 vs. American Athletic Conference
- 2-0 vs. The Summit League
- 1-0 vs. Horizon League
CARDINALS AT A GLANCE
Damian Ruiz leads the SLC in batting average (.425), runs scored (45), hits (48) and doubles (14) while he is seventh in slugging percentage (.690), second in on base percentage (.522), third in on base + slugging percentage (1.212), tied for fifth in triples (2) and fourth in walks (22).
Ruiz has reached base safely in 29 straight games while he is also sporting a 12-game hitting streak.
The 12-game hitting streak is the third longest of the season. Ruiz set the season-best streak of 15 games.
Since 2010, Ruiz has sported the third longest on base streak in program history, currently tied with Darian Johnson (2013).
Ruiz also leads the team with 16 multi-hit games. He recorded his 11th two-hit performance of the season in Game 3 against UIW.
In conference games only, Ruiz is batting .450 with 27 hits, 11 RBIs and a .683 slugging percentage.
Heladio Moreno is riding a six-game hitting streak, going 12 for 26 (.462) with two doubles and four RBIs.
Moreno ranks second in the conference with a .411 average and fourth in hits with 44.
Brayden Evans is in the top 10 of four different categories in the SLC as he is sixth in hits (40), seventh in RBIs (29), tied for fifth in at bats (117) and tied for eighth in walks (18).
Evans leads the offense with six home runs.
Zane Spinn is tied for seventh in the conference in hits (39), sixth in RBIs (30) and eighth in at bats (116).
Zak Skinner has been riding a six-game hitting streak, going 9 for 30 (.300) during the stretch with eight RBIs.
Matt Ryan is tied for seventh in the SLC with a .480 on base percentage. Ryan has reached base safely in his last six games.
As a team, LU remains atop the SLC leaderboard in batting average (.319) and hits (326) while it's tied for first in runs scored (243), third in doubles (59), third in walks (164), second in on base percentage (.423) and second in RBIs (214).
The Cardinals have tied their longest winning streak of the season (8) which was set from Feb. 16-Feb. 25.
LU is outscoring its opponents, 243-125. It also has outscored its opponents 34-10 in the first inning and 41-11 in the second inning.
When the Cardinals score in the first inning they are 11-2 and when they are leading after six innings, they sport a 20-1 record.
The LU pitching staff leads the conference in strikeouts (252) and saves (9) while it is second in ERA (3.73).
Riely Hunsaker is tied for the eighth best ERA in the conference (2.57).
Peyton Havard is tied for seventh in batters struck out (34).
Chris Olivier has kept opponents to a .218 batting average, which ranks sixth in the conference.
Olivier and Sutton are also tied for fourth in wins (4) in the SLC. Sutton is 4-0 on the year while Olivier is 4-1.
The LU staff has tallied 10 or more strikeouts in 11 games.
