BEAUMONT, Texas — Lamar University only has eight games remaining in the 2025 regular season.
Over the weekend, the Cardinals were able to gain some ground in the Southland Conference standings as they are a game out of second and two games out of first.
LU will be on the road this week for four games beginning with a midweek contest against Texas A&M.
AGGIES AT A GLANCE
Texas A&M is currently 24-19 overall and 8-13 in Southeastern Conference play.
The Aggies suffered a three-game sweep to No. 1 Texas this past weekend, losing all three games by a margin of one run.
Texas A&M is 6-4 in its last 10 games.
Freshman infielder and outfielder Terrence Kiel II leads the offense with a .327 batting average and 52 hits.
Jace LaViolette, a junior outfielder, who was named to the 2025 Golden Spikes Award preseason watch list, leads the team with 15 home runs and 52 RBIs.
LaViolette is rated as the No. 1 college prospect by Baseball America, D1Baseball and MLB Pipeline.
Texas A&M ranks 12th in the SEC in offense with a collective .276 average, 384 hits, 71 home runs and 308 RBIs.
The pitching staff is seventh in the SEC with a 4.26 ERA and 376 strikeouts.
Junior pitcher Justin Lamkin leads the staff with a 3.92 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 11 starts and 62 innings.
Left-hander and junior Myles Patton ranks second on the staff with 64 strikeouts in 57.2 innings and 11 starts.
The Aggies are 3-0 against Southland Conference teams after outscoring Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Incarnate Word and Houston Christian, 45-16.
Texas A&M finished the 2024 season with a 53-15 overall record after falling short to Tennessee in the College World Series final.
A former hitting coach at Texas A&M from 2022-2024, Michael Earley enters his first season at the helm of the program.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
This is the 45th meeting between both programs since 1971.
Texas A&M is 36-8 against LU.
The last time the Cardinals beat the Aggies was Feb. 21, 2023, by a score of 7-4. It marked the first win over Texas A&M since April 10, 2000.
Texas A&M has won 10 of its last 11 games against LU.
The Cards are 23-61 against SEC opponents after having faced Texas A&M, LSU, Mississippi State, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Missouri and Oklahoma.
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.
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
SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE STANDINGS
- Southeastern (33-11, 18-6)
- McNeese (29-10, 17-7)
- UTRGV (28-15, 19-8)
- Lamar (36-11, 16-8)
- Northwestern State (27-18, 17-10)
- Houston Christian (23-19, 15-9)
- New Orleans (23-18, 10-14)
- A&M-Corpus Christi (16-27, 8-16)
- Nicholls (15-26, 8-16)
- Stephen F. Austin (12-30, 4-20)
- UIW (17-27, 3-21)
STELLAR PITCHING
LU's pitching staff struck out 30 batters and walked one during the three-game series against New Orleans.
The Cards have tallied 10 or more strikeouts in 20 games this season. The staff had a season-high 17 strikeouts against Nicholls on April 11.
LU leads the Southland Conference with 418 strikeouts, 12 saves and 406.1 innings pitched while it is second in ERA (3.92) and opponent batting average (.245).
Riely Hunsaker (2.61),
Peyton Havard (2.65) and
Chris Olivier (3.02) rank third, fourth and fifth in the conference in ERA, respectively.
Havard is third in the conference in opposing batting average (.204) while Olivier is fifth (.223).
Havard is also third in strikeouts (69), fifth in saves (4), third in wins (7) and 10th in batters struck out looking (13).
In his last three appearances, Havard picked up two wins while striking out 10 batters without allowing a walk.
Olivier is also ninth in the conference in batters struck out looking (14) and tied for fourth in wins (6).
Hunsaker also ranks eighth in the conference in strikeouts (52) while he is tied for ninth in innings pitched (58.2).
RECORD BREAKER
Damian Ruiz rewrote history Sunday by breaking the program record for the longest hitting streak.
Ruiz has put together a 29-game hitting streak which surpassed the old program record of 28 games set by Sam Bumpers in 2014.
In addition, Ruiz is also on a 46-game on base streak.
Since 2010, the longest on base streak recorded by a Cardinal was 33 games by
Kanin Dodge in 2024.
Ruiz is the only hitter in the Southland Conference batting over .400 as he leads the league with a .414 average.
He is also first in on base percentage (.538), on base + slugging percentage (1.199), runs scored (69), hits (72), doubles (18) and walks (45).
Ruiz ranks seventh in slugging percentage (.661) while he is tied for seventh at bats (174) and tied for fifth in stolen bases (12).
He leads the team with 22 multi-hit games after recording 16 two-hit performances and six three-hit games.
Ruiz is 12th in NCAA Division I in hits, 17th in batting average, tied for 16th in doubles, ninth in on base percentage and second in runs scored.
WALK IT OFF
The Cardinals have six walk-off wins this season, five happening in the month of April.
Zak Skinner has delivered three of the six walk-off victories.
- March 11: 5-4 (10 inn.) vs. New Mexico State (Zak Skinner fielder's choice to second)
- April 4: 3-2 vs. UT Arlington (Brayden Evans RBI single to right)
- April 6: 6-5 vs. UT Arlington (Zak Skinner RBI double down the right field line)
- April 11: 5-4 (10 inn.) vs. Nicholls (Hector Rodriguez RBI infield single)
- April 12: 9-8 vs. Nicholls (Zak Skinner RBI single to right center)
- April 25: 4-3 vs. New Orleans (Zane Spinn RBI single down the left field line)
WINNING
LU's 36 wins are tied for second-most in NCAA Division I behind the 37 wins recorded by Texas, West Virginia and Arkansas.
The Cards are currently tied with LSU and Clemson.
LU is also tied for the sixth-longest home win streak in NCAA Division I, having won eight straight at Vincent-Beck Stadium. West Virginia has also won eight straight at home.
The nation's longest home win streak belongs to Northeastern (12).
CARDINALS AT A GLANCE
LU's offense leads the Southland Conference in batting average (.307), runs scored (379), hits (491), at bats (1,601), RBIs (338), walks (281) and on base percentage (.422).
The Cards are also second in total bases (713), third in triples (11) and third in doubles (89).
LU ranks 10th in NCAA Division I in hits, 22nd in on base percentage and 21st in runs scored.
Heladio Moreno is tied for third in the Southland Conference in hits (63), sixth in batting average (.362), tied for eighth in stolen bases (11) and tied for seventh in at bats (174).
Matt Ryan ranks third in the conference in on base percentage (.483) and is tied for third in hit by pitch (15).
Brayden Evans is sixth in the conference in runs scored (46), tied for sixth in hits (59), second in RBIs (49), first in at bats (191), tied for fourth in triples (3) and tied for seventh in walks (29).
Zane Spinn ranks fifth in the conference in hits (61) while he is tied for eighth in RBIs (43) and tied for second in at bats (185).
Zak Skinner is tied for third in the conference in RBIs (48), tied for sixth in doubles (13), tied for second in at bats (185) and sixth in walks (30).
Tab Tracy is ninth in the conference in walks (28) and tied for fifth in stolen bases (12).
