April 10, 2008

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The Lamar baseball team returns to southeast Texas to face Sam Houston State in a home series at Vincent-Beck Stadium this weekend. Game times are Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Friday and Sunday's games will broadcast in Beaumont on KLVI 560-AM, while all three contests will carried on lamarcardinals.com.

Lamar is 20-11 overall and 10-2 in the SLC, and returns to the friendly confines of Vincent-Beck Stadium. The Cardinals are 14-3 at home and 6-0 against conference foes. Sam Houston State brings a 18-13 overall mark and a 6-6 SLC ledger to the park. The Bearkats are the defending SLC Tournament champions and were picked to finish second in the West Division.

On paper the series appears to be Lamar's pitching and defense against Sam Houston State's offense. Lamar brings a 4.38 ERA and a ,974 fielding percentage into the games. The defense ranks 12th in the nation and the staff ERA is 60th. The Bearkats lead the Southland and rank 10th nationally in hitting with a .336 batting average.

Lamar's starting rotation of Brian Sisk (6-1, 2.62), Matt Morgal (3-1, 5.94) and Tim Erickson (4-0, 0.83) have combined to go 9-1 with a 3.77 ERA in 11 league starts. Runs have been at a premium for the visitors in the six league games at Vincent-Beck as LU's opponents are averaging just 2.8 runs per game. In fact, Lamar has led by at least two runs after three innings in five of the six games.

For as much pitching and defense as Lamar has relied on in the early going, Sam Houston State has been the top offensive team in the league. The Bearkats have scored in all 31 games and have plated at least six runs in 21. Sam Houston has 110 extra-base hits and leads the SLC with 29 home runs and 15 triples. SHSU also puts the ball in play as shown by its 134 strikeouts - a figure that ranks as the second-fewest in the conference.

While Lamar's rotation of Sisk, Morgal and Erickson is set, Sam Houston State may go with a pitching staff by committee and has not publically set a rotation for the weekend.

Lamar leads the all-time series 50-45-1 and is 28-17 at home. The Cardinals have dropped the last two, including an 18-7 setback in the second game of the 2008 season. Prior to last season's loss in the SLC Tournament, Lamar had won five-straight, including a series sweep in Huntsville a year ago. LU is 19-11 against SHSU since rejoining the SLC in 1999.

The weekend promises to be one of the more exciting in the Southland Conference as the top three teams in each division play one another. In fact, those top six teams are the only schools in the league with winning overall records. West Division leader Texas State ()17-11, 9-3) is at Southeastern Louisiana (16-13, 6-6), UTSA (21-11, 8-4) is a Northwestern State (17-12, 9-2) - both of those teams are in second in their divisions, and the Bearkats, who are third in the West face the league-leading Cardinals.