April 23, 2012

BEAUMONT - Lamar University will play its final non-conference home baseball game of the 2012 season when the Cardinals welcome Prairie View A&M to Vincent-Beck Stadium on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

Lamar is coming off a strong road weekend in which it took 2-of-3 at Nicholls to improve to 15-23 on the year. In Sunday's final game, Lamar exploded for a 12-4 win on a season-high 16 hits. The Cardinals put up 10 runs in the first inning en route to their biggest scoring day of the year.

Lamar and Prairie View A&M (20-18) have met 40 times on the baseball diamond with the Cardinals holding a commanding 37-3 series advantage. The Cards have won the last four in the series, including an 11-1 win last year in Beaumont.

Seven different Cardinals drove in at least one run in last year's game, led by first baseman Wade Mathis with three. Current senior Jeff Abt was the only position player on this year's team that started against the Panthers last year, going 0-for-2 with a pair of runs scored and one run batted in.

Abt was the only Cardinal not to get a hit in Sunday's slugfest to put an end to his 10-game hitting streak. Center fielder Garret Autrey hit an inside the park grand slam Sunday to lead the Cardinals with four RBI.

After the weekend series at Nicholls, Lamar improved its team batting average to .255 and its runs per game to 3.9. The Cardinals have a team earned run average of 4.71 and are giving up just over five and a half runs per contest.

Junior designated hitter Seth Dornak, who was 3-for-5 with three RBI on Sunday, leads the Cardinals with a .311 batting average. Third baseman Darian Johnson is second on the team with a .297 batting average. Despite hitting just .236 on the year, Autrey leads the Cardinals with 25 RBI.

The Panthers are coming off three straight home losses to Southern University over the weekend. Prairie View, which is 2-8 over its last 10 games, is hitting .266 as a team with 4.8 runs scored per game. Led by Andre Oliver at 10-for-10, the Panthers are 51-of-60 on stolen base attempts this season.

Prairie View, which has a team ERA of 4.97, is 1-1 against the Southland Conference this season having lost 8-1 at Sam Houston State and won 8-7 at McNeese State.

LAMAR