April 17, 2012

Current Game Notes

BATON ROUGE, La. - The Lamar baseball team will face perhaps its toughest challenge this season Wednesday night at Alex Box Stadium as the Cardinals are set to square off against No. 1 ranked LSU. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

The Cardinals are coming off a 5-3 home loss to No. 20 Sam Houston State that dropped them to 13-21 on the season. LSU has won its last six games to improve to 30-7 on the year and grab the top ranking this week. The game will be broadcast live on KLVI 560 AM with Harold Mann providing the play-by-play.

This will be the seventh meeting between the two schools, and first since the 1995 season. Lamar is 5-1 all-time against LSU, including a perfect 2-0 in Baton Rouge. The Tigers' only win was in the last meeting when they picked up a 10-6 decision in the Louisiana Superdome.

While Lamar is just 13-21 on the year, four of the Cardinals' wins have come against ranked opponents. Lamar has a pair of wins over Baylor who was ranked No. 25 at the time, a win over then seventh ranked Rice on March 21 and Saturday's 5-2 win over the 20th ranked Bearkats.

Wednesday evening's game will be Lamar's first against a team sitting atop the national rankings since the Cardinals faced No. 1 Rice on Apr. 9, 2003. Lamar won that game 7-5 and then beat the Owls 9-5 less than two weeks later when Rice was ranked third in the nation.

While Lamar is planning to throw several pitchers in the midweek game, right hander Andrew Beasley will get the start. Beasley has no decisions on the year and a solid 3.60 earned run average. His last start came a week ago in Lamar's 4-3 loss at Houston.

Sophomore Joe Broussard will take the mound for LSU. A right hander from Gretna, La., Broussard is 4-0 on the season with a 3.75 ERA.

Offensively, Lamar is sporting a .249 team batting average with 3.7 runs scored per game. LSU is hitting .302 as a team and putting up seven runs per contest. The Tigers have the 23rd ranked ERA in the nation at 2.96, while Lamar's is currently 4.60.

Junior designated hitter Seth Dornak leads the Cardinals with a .296 batting average, while Garret Autrey leads the team with 20 runs batted in. Senior left fielder Jeff Abt is hitting .353 over his last five games and has a team-high 11 doubles on the year. Abt is also carrying a seven-game hitting streak into Baton Rouge.

LSU outfielder Raph Rhymes leads the country in hitting at .476, adding a team-high 37 RBI. Mason Katz is batting .344 with 40 runs score, seven home runs and 31 RBI.

Lamar will continue road action following the LSU game with a three-game Southland Conference series at Nicholls this weekend. The Cards and Colonels will open play Friday at 6:30 p.m. from Didier Field.

LAMAR