BEAUMONT, Texas — Only three more conference series remain in the 2025 regular season for Lamar University.

The Cardinals are sitting a game out of second place in the latest Southland Conference standings and three games out of first.

This weekend, LU hosts New Orleans for a three-game series beginning Friday, April 25.

PRIVATEERS AT A GLANCE

New Orleans is the hottest team in the Southland Conference as it is currently riding an eight-game winning streak, the fifth-longest current active streak in NCAA Division I.

The Privateers are 23-15 overall and 10-11 in conference play.

New Orleans is coming off a three-game sweep of Houston Christian last weekend. Its midweek contest against South Alabama was canceled on Wednesday due to the heavy rain.

Senior utility player Bryce Calloway leads the offense with a .393 average, 57 hits, 12 home runs, 48 RBIs, .717 slugging percentage and .482 on base percentage.

Calloway leads the Southland Conference in RBIs and on base + slugging percentage.

He also made 12 appearances on the mound with 13 strikeouts and a team-high eight saves in 16.1 innings.

Senior infielder Bryan Loriga is second on the team with 49 hits and a .338 average while he leads the way in doubles with 14.

New Orleans is batting .309 as a team with 394 hits, 52 home runs and 261 RBIs. The offense ranks second in the conference in home runs while it's tied for first in batting average.

Senior right-hander Grant Edwards leads the pitching staff with 71 strikeouts in 55 innings pitched.

Edwards is 3-2 on the season in 10 starts with a 4.09 ERA. In his last appearance on April 17, he struck out seven batters in a six-inning outing against Houston Christian.

Left-hander and senior Zach Longshore is second on the staff with 46 strikeouts in 42.1 innings.

The staff has compiled a 6.41 ERA in 320 innings with 337 strikeouts.
 
Head coach Dax Norris took over the helm after three seasons as the pitching coach.

New Orleans finished the 2024 season with a 31-26 overall record and 14-10 conference mark.

The Privateers have made four straight Southland Conference tournaments, landing in the tournament title game in 2023.

HEAD-TO-HEAD

This is the 116th meeting between LU and New Orleans since the series began in 1971.

LU is 55-60 against the Privateers all-time. The Cards are 6-3 in their last nine meetings.

Last spring, LU took two out of three, winning the first two games of the series 12-3 and 10-9, respectively.

The Cards are 32-27 against New Orleans when at home.

MIDWEEK SUCCESS

LU is 13-1 in midweek contests with only two more remaining. The Cardinals are 8-0 in midweek contests at home and 5-1 on the road.

LU's final two midweek contests are against Texas A&M (April 29) and No. 1 Texas (May 6).

The Cards have outscored their midweek opponents 150-73.

Breakdown by conference:

• 4-0 vs. Conference USA
• 3-0 vs. American Athletic Conference
• 2-0 vs. The Summit League
• 2-0 vs. Southwestern Athletic Conference
• 1-0 vs. Horizon League
• 1-0 vs. Western Athletic Conference
• 0-1 vs. Big 12

WALKS, WALKS, WALKS

Wednesday's contest against Prairie View A&M saw 20 Cardinal batters draw a walk.

The number was five shy of tying the highest single game mark in NCAA baseball history.

William & Mary drew 25 walks in 2000 to join two other Division I programs: Mercer (1985) and Miami (Fla.) (1982).

Across all levels, Division III Muhlenberg College joined the club by drawing 25 walks in a game against Penn State Berks in 2024.

SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE STANDINGS

• McNeese (28-8, 16-5)
• Southeastern (31-10, 16-5)
• UTRGV (26-14, 17-7)
• Houston Christian (22-17, 14-7)
• Northwestern State (25-17, 15-9)
• Lamar (33-11, 13-8)
• New Orleans (23-15, 10-11)
• Nicholls (15-26, 8-16)
• A&M-Corpus Christi (14-26, 6-15)
• Stephen F. Austin (11-28, 3-18)
• UIW (16-25, 2-19)

CARDINALS AT A GLANCE

Damian Ruiz continues to get on base.

He is currently sporting a 26-game hitting streak and 43-game on base streak.

The longest hitting streak in program history was recorded by Sam Bumpers in 2014 (28 games).

Ruiz recently passed Erik Kanaby's 25-game hitting streak from 2006-2007, which ranked as the second-longest streak in program history.

Ruiz is second in the conference in batting average (.411), sixth in slugging percentage (.650), first in on base percentage (.536), second in on base + slugging percentage (1.186), first in runs scored (64), first in hits (67), first in doubles (17), first in walks (42) and tied for ninth in at bats (163).

He is tied for 15th in NCAA Division I in doubles, tied for 14th in hits, seventh in on base percentage and second in runs scored.

Matt Ryan is second in the conference in on base percentage (.500) and tied for fourth in hit by pitch (14).

Heladio Moreno ranks sixth in the conference in batting average (.361), tied for second in hits (60) and sixth in at bats (166).

Zane Spinn is fifth in the Southland Conference in hits (58), tied for seventh in RBIs (40) and third in at bats (172).

Brayden Evans ranks fifth in the conference in runs (43), tied for sixth in hits (56), second in RBIs (47), tied for third in triples (3) and first in at bats (181).

Zak Skinner is tied for fourth in the conference in RBIs (44), tied for eighth in walks (26) and second in at bats (175).

Tab Tracy is seventh in walks in the Southland with 27.

The Cards are first in the Southland Conference in hits (465), first in runs scored (359), third in doubles (86), first in RBIs (321), second in total bases (681), first in walks (264) and second in on base percentage (.424).

LU is ranked sixth in the NCAA Division I in walks, tied for fifth in hits, 25th in on base percentage, 19th in runs scored and tied for 21st in winning percentage (.750).

Peyton Havard is fourth in the conference in strikeouts (60), fifth in saves (4) and tied for sixth in wins (5).

Riely Hunsaker ranks third in the conference in ERA (2.60), ninth on opposing batting average (.251), 10th in innings pitched (52) and seventh in strikeouts (48).

Chris Olivier is fifth in the conference in ERA (3.09), fourth in opposing batting average (.227) and ninth in batters struck out looking (13).

LU's pitching staff is second in the Southland Conference in ERA (4.06), tied for first in saves (11), first in innings pitched (379.1) and first in strikeouts (388).

Defensively, Bryce Grizzaffi and Skinner have each caught six runners stealing to rank fourth in the conference.