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Lamar Travels To Rice For Tuesday Tilt
April 7, 2008
• Lamar at Rice Game Notes in PDF Format The Lamar baseball team will make its first trip of the season into Houston for a Tuesday contest against No. 9 Rice at Reckling Park as the Cardinals close out their second five-game road trip of the 2008 schedule. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. and the game will broadcast in Beaumont on KLVI 560-AM and simulcast on lamarcardinals.com. Adult general admission tickets are $7, while reserved seats range from $10-17. Youth prices are $5 for general admission and $7 for reserved seats. Lamar enters the game following last weekend's series win at Nicholls State that pushed its record to 20-10 overall and maintained its lead in the Southland Conference with a 10-2 mark. The Cardinals have now won 11 of their last 15 and have evened their road record to 5-5. Junior right-hander Brian Needham is scheduled to start for the Cards. He will be making his fifth start of the season but his first since March 16, when he failed to record an out against UT-Arlington. In the three weeks that have followed, the Sugarland, Texas product has turned into a reliable option out of the bullpen, posting a pair of saves and striking out seven in 7.2 innings. This will be his second career start against Rice. He allowed two hits and two unearned runs in an inning of last year's 13-4 loss in Beaumont. Rice is coming off a 4-1 week in which the Owls won at Texas, fell to Dallas Baptist at home and swept a Saturday-Sunday three-game series at Memphis. The Owls are 23-10 on the year, 7-2 in Conference USA play and 10-5 at home. Rice is ranked as high as No. 9 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll, while coming in at No. 11 in Baseball America and No. 13 in the Collegiate Baseball poll. This will be the first ranked opponent that Lamar has faced this year, with its last coming last April 11 when the fifth-ranked Owls visited Vincent-Beck Stadium/ Sophomore right-hander Mike Ojala is scheduled to start for the Owls. He is 1-0 wit a 7.20 ERA in five previous starts and seven overall appearances. Lamar has not faced a left-handed pitcher since Sunday, March 30 against Central Arkansas. In the four games since, the Cardinals have seen 13 righties. Rice leads the all-time series 68-43 and has won the last seven meetings, including five-straight in Houston. Prior to that, Lamar had won three-consecutive, including a sweep over the then-No. 1 and No. 3 ranked owls in 2003. The Cardinals are just 2-8 in games at Reckling Park.
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