Southland Conference

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Lamar's players made big splashes throughout the 2010 Southland Conference Baseball Championships and they made even more after it ended Saturday night.

A few minutes after the Cardinals concluded their four-game march to the tournament title with a resounding 17-7 victory over regular-season league champion, at least half of the excited team members sprinted across the Whataburger Field outfield, scaled the right field wall and began plunging into the swimming pool just beyond it.

Indeed, the Cardinals had plenty to celebrate, including their climb from the tournament's lowly No. 7 seed to their third Southland Conference tournament title and to earning the school's 13th NCAA Tournament berth.

Once the Cardinals put up a big five-run second inning to overcome a 4-1 deficit, the stunned Bobcats, who beat Lamar three times during the regular season, never really had a chance. They batted around twice - in the second and fifth innings - and they accumulated a season-high 22 hits.

Making their 35th victory of the season a true team effort, every Cardinal position player rapped out at least one hit and scored at least one run. Shortstop Aaron Buchanan and right fielder Quentin Luquette led the way with four hits each, and the tiny Buchanan flexed his muscles by blasting the first home run of his collegiate career - a solo shot over the right field fence in the seventh inning.

Brightest star for the Cardinals during their improbable four-game sweep over No. 2 seed Northwestern State, sixth-seeded McNeese State (twice) and the highly favored Bobcats was centerfielder Anthony Moore. Media members covering the tournament confirmed it by voting the senior from Cedar Hill, Texas, the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

For the tournament, Moore went 10-for-16 at the plate for a sizzling .625 average. He stroked two doubles, slugged three home runs and drove in 10 runs. He started his championship game contributions with a spectacular sliding catch in center field in the first inning, and he went on to go 2-for-5, belt a two-run homer in the tide-turning second inning and finish his night with a leadoff double in the eighth.

Junior catcher Joey Latulippe and freshman pitcher Jonathan Dziedzic joined Moore on the 11-member all-tournament team. Latulippe went 2-for-4, scored two runs and drove in two in the championship game, while Dziedzic picked up a save in the Cardinals' 4-3 tournament-opening win over Northwestern State and struck out 10 batters in their 9-3 semifinal triumph over McNeese State.

Matison Smith, who earned his 10th victory of the season in the Northwestern State game, started again Saturday night but wasn't as sharp this time around. When the Bobcats, who had unleashed a 20-hit attack in a 15-10 win over UT Arlington earlier in the day, pulled to within 8-7 in the fifth inning, coach Jim Gilligan summoned Blake Ford from the bullpen.

Ford, a lanky junior right-hander, held the Bobcats scoreless over the final 4.1 innings to notch his third victory in seven decisions.

"Obviously, our season has been a grind, but we're a different club now," said Gilligan. "They guys continued to get better. Anthony Moore has found himself at the plate, and Ryan has been coming on of late. They're two the reasons we're an improved team now.

"I could go position-by-position and say this guy and then that guy are all why we're where we are now."

When a media member asked him about his championship game homer, Moore responded, "I was looking to drive the ball to the gap. The ball has been carrying to left field. I just got the ball up, and it went out of the park."

Of his late-season turnaround, Moore, "With coach Gilligan's help, I've learned to keep things slow at the plate and not swing at bad pitches. This week I've been really relaxed, and I tried to do the best I could in each at-bat."

The Cardinals will learn of their first-round NCAA Tournament pairing and regional site during ESPN's Selection Monday show to air Monday at 11:30 a.m, CDT.

Lamar coach Jim Gilligan
"This season has been a real grind because of everything that's happened throughout the year. We've had a lot of scenarios that a lot of teams would have shut it down but we didn't. Coming into the tournament we were 0-4 against McNeese and we win and were 0-3 against Texas State. Obviously we are a different club than we were during the season. It's guys just staying after it and getting better. Anthony (Moore) got hurt and when he came back about 100 points dropped off his average and then he found himself again. That was one of the big keys for us, him and Ryan Meade getting to where he was producing for us. When Pablo (Salinas) got hurt, I was really worried. When he went down with that knee injury at home plate, he had just become a really steady third baseman for us. When (A.J) Bunner came in for us, it's like we didn't skip a beat."

"It was fabulous. Tonight it was relentless; it was 27 outs of guys just really playing hard. They did it to the last out."

Lamar centerfielder Anthony Moore
"It was a fastball away, I was just looking to put a good swing on the pitch and make some things happen. I was actually just looking to put something in the gap; in this park, balls to left field just seem to carry. I just got it up and it carried.

Lamar starting pitcher Matison Smith:
"It certainly wasn't my best performance but my teammates picked me up, they've been pcking me up all season. Like coach Gilligan said, I had to become a sinker, slider pitcher to get a lot more ground balls. My defense has just been huge for me, especially in the second half of the season. I went out there and just did as much as I could for as long as I could. Just thankful everything came out the way it did, you couldn't ask for more from your hitters or from your team."

Texas State Head Coach Ty Harrington
"Physically and emotionally I knew going into this second game it be tough on us. We decided to go with Jeff McVaney early but you could see that pitching yesterday being in the sun all day was taxing on him on the mound tonight. But playing this many games in this short a span with two doubleheaders the last two days took its toll on some of our guys. The score didn't reflect the effort which we played with tonight and I'm really proud of these guys.

"We didn't see Anthony Moore in the first series at home since he was hurt but Jim Gilligan has done a great job coaching him. Tonight he came up with the key hits which turned the game but he is a great player.

"All I can tell you is that it should be. No one can rub the crystal ball and tell you for sure what's going to happen. I'll be incredibly disappointed if we're not; this team was the regular season conference champions and played for the tournament championship. Our RPI has been pretty good and we play a really tough non-conference schedule. The words I would like to use is that I'm hopeful and I think we should be but that's not my decision."

Texas State pitcher/designated hitter Jeff McVaney
"I don't think we ever doubted it, we were a confident team. Sometimes we have bad days but I don't think we ever doubted we would make it to the conference championship.

"I like playing a part in big situations, I had been struggling hitting for a while. Near the end of the tournament I started getting my swing back and it feels good to finally start hitting balls hard again. This field is a pretty cool experience and just wants to make you play well."