BATON ROUGE, La. – Lamar University baseball and Southern University have agreed to square off in a midweek, non-conference contest at Lee Hines Field 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. The added game brings LU to a full 56-game slate after they lost a game due to a rain out in March.
"Ever since our game at Northwestern State was rained out, I've been trying to find a game to fit in so we could play a full slate," said head coach
Will Davis. "It worked out that neither of us had a midweek and we each have big games coming up on the weekend."
Sitting in a three-way tie for seventh place, Lamar (28-21, 12-12 Southland) hosts sixth-place Stephen F. Austin (26-23, 14-10) in a three-game slate in league play over the weekend, and Southern (15-24, 9-14) will battle Texas Southern on Sunday for a spot in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament.
Lamar enters after a big series win at Oklahoma State and emotional four-game week that also featured Rice. LU lost the first two games of that week on walk-offs before it pulled of its own one-run win over the Cowboys and won the series with a 6-2 victory Sunday.
As a team, Lamar hits at a .287 clip, led by
Cutter McDowell (.367) and
Robin Adames (.343), both of who are listed as out for Wednesday.
Bryndan Arredondo is hitting .321 on the year and is followed by
Reid Russell' .314,
Trey Silvers' 289 and
Grant DeVore's .285. Adames is LU's team leader in RBI at 44 and McDowell in runs at 46.
Southern has a team .252 batting mark and averages 5.5 runs per game. Infielders Phillip Williams and John Pope lead the Jaguars in hitting. Williams has a .347 average followed by Pope's .343. Pope has driven in 40 runs and scored 29 while Williams has 15 RBIs and 26 runs scored.
The Cardinals will send
Nathan Gabryszwski to the mound to start the game. The freshman is 1-1 on the year with a 2.66 earned run average in 20 1/3 innings. He's given up six earned runs and struck out 22 batters with just nine walks. He is a part of pitching staff that has a 4.13 ERA in 429.0 total innings.
Following the game, Lamar will return home to open a busy weekend with SFA at 6 p.m. Friday night. MobilOil Credit Union, the weekend's sponsor, will hosting a hat giveaway both Friday and Saturday. The Cardinals will recognize its 1967 baseball team Saturday and seniors will be presented on Senior Day Sunday.
