Lamar Moves to Bracket Final after 10-7 Win vs. McNeese State
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - After McNeese State pulled within one run in the bottom of the eighth inning, Lamar added two runs in the top of the ninth for a 10-7 victory over the Cowboys in the Southland Conference Baseball Tournament Thursday at Whataburger Field
The Cardinals (33-24) got the third complete game of the season from starter Eric Harrington, who allowed seven runs on nine hits. The sophomore struck out eight without walking a batter and threw 121 pitches, including 86 for strikes. He settled down after allowing two McNeese runs in the first inning.
Lamar got the runs back in the top of the fourth and added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to go up 4-2. The Cowboys made it a one-run game in the sixth when Lee Orr hit his 17th home run of the season. It moved him into a tie for the league lead in home runs with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's Trey Hernandez and UTSA's Ryan Dalton.
There were four home runs in the game, including three by Lamar. Anthony Moore drove in two with a shot to left field in the fourth. Joey Latulippe cleared the fence in left in the sixth and Pablo Salinas homered to spark a four-run eighth. Moore finished 4-for-5 with two RBI and scored three runs. Salinas was the only other Cardinal with multiple hits as nine different players accounted for 13 hits.
McNeese (30-26) had nine hits, including two each by Andy Riche', Steven Irvine and Matt Fontenot. Lee Orr, who hit a solo home run in the sixth, finished with three RBI after driving in runs on a pair of misplayed grounders. Each team had three errors in the game.
Zach Butler took the loss to fall to 1-4. In 5.2 innings pitched, he allowed four runs on six hits and struck out three. McNeese used three other pitchers in the game.
The No. 6 seed Cowboys must turn around and play No. 2 seed Southeastern Louisiana Friday at 9 a.m., CDT. The winner moves on to play No. 7 seed Lamar Friday at 4 p.m. while the loser goes home. The Cardinals can clinch a berth in the championship game with a win Friday evening or if they lose, the two would play again Saturday for the right to play in the title game against the winner of the other bracket.
Lamar coach Jim Gilligan
"It was a great ball game. Both teams played well. It was an identical outing as last time for (starting pitcher Eric) Harrington. Last week he gave up three runs in the first then threw up seven zeros on the board. That one inning sort of got away from us, we booted the ball at third base and kicked one into the stands down there so things weren't going our way.
"Harrington was tough and worked his way through it and the kids did a good job of putting some runs on the board after that happened. I was really pleased with how we competed today.
"It was a good day offensively and it was just another good ball game; two in-a-row.
"The win today was big. It seemed like last year we were taking batting practice at 7:30 in the morning every day. We can stay in until two o'clock in the afternoon this time."
Lamar centerfielder Anthony Moore
"I was just trying to keep things slow at the plate. I was seeing the ball well my first couple of bats. The pitching was there. I was just seeing the ball and putting good swings on it and just trying to make things happen.
We knew this game would be a game like that, McNeese and Lamar is a pretty big rivalry so we just wanted to come out play our best game. We had good pitching from Harrington and put some runs up; just taking things slow and trying to work it.
McNeese State coach Terry Burrows
"I thought we started out well, we came out and put a couple of runs in the first inning. Zach (Butler, McNeese State starting pitcher) for the most part was throwing the ball pretty well. He got a ball up in the zone to Moore and the guy did what he was supposed to do and hit a home run to tie it up.
"I guess the only disappointing thing right now is that he (Butler) made a pretty poor decision with the way he went about things when one of the home runs was hit. He has got to learn to hold his cool. At the same time, we got into our bullpen earlier than we wanted to, not only for the game but for the tournament. It is what it is and we have to deal with it.
"We'll come back out tomorrow morning; Dustin Lloyd will start against Southeastern who is going to want to win it as much as we do, if not more. Everybody does obviously, we just have to come out and play good baseball."