BEAUMONT – Robin Adames punched through the tying and go-ahead runs and the Cardinal defense came up big Sunday afternoon when the Lamar University baseball team took the rubber match from UT Rio Grande Valley 4-1 at Vincent-Beck Stadium in non-conference action.
 
Lamar (9-4) won the first game of the three-game set Friday 4-1, but dropped the second contest 7-3 before the Cardinals took the final game Sunday. All three games were played tight with each one either being tied or a one-run difference by the middle of the sixth.
 
UTRGV (4-8) took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning, but Big Red responded in the bottom of the frame when Adames lined one to right centerfield that scored Cutter McDowell from third base. McDowell reached on a double to right center and advanced to third when Bryndan Arredondo continued his hot hitting with a single to right field.
 
Arredondo notched his sixth multi-hit game this season with his 3-of-4 day on two singles and a double. He is tied with McDowell, who was 2-of-4 Sunday, for the team lead in multi-hit ballgames.
 
Adames drove a liner down the left field line, after faking a bunt in the first pitch he saw in the sixth, that chased home McDowell again for what would end up being the game-winning run. McDowell reached on a single to right and moved into scoring position on Arredondo's other single, this one through the left side.
 
Jacoby Middleton pushed Arredondo home on a single to left center and Ryan Erickson poked one into right field that was able to get Adames home.  Adames finished the game with two hits, two runs batted in and a run scored.
 
"Adames is swinging the bat good. It's really good to have a freshman in your lineup who is a big part of it," said head coach Jim Gilligan. "It is something that will show up down the road.
 
"We did a good job of keeping the ball out of the wind with a lot of hard ground balls and we had some good line drives for that matter," he said. "That is how this park plays when the wind blows in like it did today."
 
Both teams were able to work up 12 hits apiece, but it was UTRGV's 11 left on and three double plays turned by the Cardinals that proved to be the difference.  One of the double plays took a bases-loaded, one-out jam and ended the frame.
 
LU starter Billy Love, who pitched 5.1 solid innings and gave up one run on 11 hits without a walk, retired the first batter he faced of the sixth, but gave up back-to-back-base knocks for men on second and third.  He was lifted from the game for Brett Brown, who issued a four-pitch walk to the first batter he faced. Manny Loredo stepped to the plate and rolled over towards second baseman Chaneng Varela for a 4-6-3 double play that retried the Vaqueros.
 
"Those were hard hit ground balls, but that is how it goes sometimes," said Gilligan. "You're swinging the bat good and you don't get a break"
 
Brown (1-0) took the win on 1.2 innings pitched with just one hit and two walks allowed. He was pulled at the start of the eighth for Jimmy Johnson, who earned his second save of the year. Johnson pitched two frames with two walks and a strikeout.
 
Love's outing was the longest of his career, the previous being against Southeastern Missouri State at four frames.
 
Ryan Jackson suffered his third loss of the early season on five innings of work. He allowed three runs on seven hits.
 
LU will play its final non-conference game before league play opens on Tuesday when it hosts Rice at 6 o'clock. That game also marks the final contest of a 14-game home stand that opened the 2016 campaign. The next home game after will be a midweek game against Houston on March 15 at 6 p.m.
 
Southland Conference play opens at Northwestern State on March 11 at Brown-Stroud Field. The series opener is slated for 6:30, the second game at 2 p.m. on Saturday and the finale at 1 p.m. Sunday.