May 22, 2008

Box Score

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - David Moore tied a school record and set two Southland Conference Tournament records with three home runs to lead Lamar past Texas State, 11-7, in a winner's bracket game at Don Sanders Stadium Thursday.

Moore went 4-for-5 with five RBIs and three runs and a record 13 total bases. He became the fourth Cardinal in school history to go deep three times in a game. He also extended his current hitting streak to 10 games.

Lamar (34-21) banged out a season-high 20 hits and used a six-run fifth inning to put some distance between itself and Texas State (30-26).

The Cardinals will now face the winner of Friday morning's Southeastern Louisiana-Texas State game at 4 p.m. Lamar will have two chances to win one and advance to Saturday's tourney championship game.

In addition to Moore's big game, Tyler Link went 4-for-6 with three RBI as he posted his third 4-hit game of the year.

Lamar got an unearned run home in the top of the first when Link reached on a leadoff error to the shortstop, moved to second on Brian Taylor's team-leading 11th sac bunt before Travis Dunson placed a bloop single just over second base that got Link home.

The Cardinals added another run in the third thanks to a leadoff double by Logan Pace. He hit a two-strike pitch off the glove of the third baseman and cruised into second for his sixth double of the year. He then scored on Taylor's sac fly on a line out to left field.

Moore hit the first pitch he saw over the wall in right to open the fourth and make it 3-0 Lamar.

Then Lamar had the big inning it needed against the No. 2 offense in the SLC. The first nine batters in the inning recorded a hit as Steven Tucker led off with a solo home run, followed by a three-run shot by Moore three batters later. Three more singles loaded the bases for Link, who put a single through the left side to drive in the final two of the inning and give the Cards a 9-0 lead.

Texas State got on the scoreboard with a four-run sixth before Lamar plated a pair of insurance runs in the ninth, including a leadoff homer by Moore to set the tournament home run mark, which was previously accomplished eight times with the last coming in the 2004 championship game by Lamar's Jordan Foster.

Justin Walker (2-2) earned the win after striking out one and allowing seven hits in 5.1 innings. The left-hander gave up just two hits throughout the top five innings while retiring the side in the second, fourth and fifth frames. Zack Tritz (9-4) took the loss after allowing seven runs in 4.0 innings.