Baseball: April 15 Scoreboard
Texas A&M 3, Abilene Christian 2
Louisiana-Monroe 5, Northwestern State 1
LSU 11, Lamar 2
Arkansas 15, Stephen F. Austin 3
Texas A&M 3, Abilene Christian 2
Recap to follow.
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Louisiana-Monroe 5, Northwestern State 1
MONROE, La. – Northwestern State had its chances early and often Wednesday night.
And while the Demons could not find the timely hit, ULM’s Kodie Tidwell did.
Tidwell’s two-run triple snapped a seventh-inning tie and lifted ULM to a 5-1 win over the Demons at Warhawk Field.
“I’m very disappointed in our offensive effort,” third-year head coach Lane Burroughs said. “We take one step forward, two back. Very immature right now, and it’s too late in the year to be doing this. Nothing against ULM, they beat us, but we had runners in scoring position and we don’t cash in. We didn’t play a good game.”
The Demons (20-16) left eight men on base thanks in part to drawing five walks from four ULM (18-18) pitchers.
Three of those runners were left at third base in the first four innings of a scoreless game. Northwestern State nearly took the lead in the top of the fourth, but ULM right fielder Jacob Stockton threw out C.J. Webster at the plate to end the inning.
The Warhawks (18-18) snapped the scoreless tie on Stockton’s sacrifice fly in the fourth inning off NSU starter Evan Tidwell, who allowed his first run against ULM in 12 1-3 innings this season.
NSU tied the game in the sixth, as Nick Heath chopped a two-out single through the left side, scoring Chase Daughdrill, who led off the inning with a walk.
Fielding Matkins (0-1) relieved Tidwell with a man on second in the fifth inning and escaped that jam. Matkins worked into the seventh before leaving in favor of Hunter Duvic, who inherited a first-and-third, two-out situation.
Tidwell welcomed Duvic with a first-pitch triple to right-center field to snap the tie. The Warhawks added two more runs in the eighth inning to snap a three-game losing streak to the Demons, who scored a 7-0 win against the Warhawks on March 3 at Brown-Stroud Field.
Heath and Cort Brinson paced the Demons offense with two hits apiece, combining for four of NSU’s five hits. Daughdrill’s first-inning double was NSU’s lone extra-base hit.
Brinson's first-inning single extended his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest by a Demon since 2010, when Eric DeBlanc set the school record with a 28-game streak. Chase Lyles also hit safely in 18 straight games that season.
The Demons return home this weekend to face Central Arkansas in a three-game Southland Conference at Brown-Stroud Field. Friday’s series opener is set for 6:30 p.m.
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LSU 11, Lamar 2
BATON ROUGE, La. – Three doubles surged the Tigers to an early 6-0 lead in the first inning and led second-ranked LSU over the Lamar baseball team 11-2 at Alex Box Stadium Wednesday night in non-conference action.
Lamar (17-19) starter Billy Love, who battled injuries all season, walked the first batter in Jake Fraley on a 3-2 count ball in the first inning. Fraley took off for second and was beat by the throw down, but was able to take the bag when Stijn van der Meer was unable to hold on the ball to tag him.
Mark Laird singled up the middle, which scored Fraley, just before Alex Bregman drew a full-count walk to put Tigers (32-6) on first and second bases. Conner Hale doubled to right center to score one, and Kade Scivicque doubled to right to push it out to a 4-0 margin.
Will Hibbs took over and Andrew Stevenson laid down a sacrifice bunt but perfectly placed it and reached first. He stole second to put runners on second and third before Chris Chinea doubled to left center for two more RBI.
Hibbs ended the inning with two ground outs and a strikeout. He struck out the side in the second inning, but allowed Bregman to hit his eighth homerun of the year. Chinea dropped a two-run home run, scored Stevenson, into the left field bleachers to push the advantage to 9-0 in the third.
Brendan Satran put Lamar on the board in the fifth inning on a solo dinger to left field on a full count. Justin Eckols followed that with a single, but an unfortunate liner right at the first baseman from van der Meer forced the Cardinals into an inning-ending double play.
LU’s final run came in the ninth when Brandon Provost scored from second on a fielding error from LSU’s right fielder. Provost pinch ran for pinch hitter Cutter McDowell, who doubled to right field with two outs.
The Cardinals threatened in the fourth inning after Kevin Santana lined a one-out double to left field, but back-to-back groundouts ended the inning. In the sixth, CJ Moore singled to left field and Santana followed him with a one-bagger, but a double played killed the rally.
Lamar hit into three double plays in the game.
Love (0-1) never recorded an out, and all but one of the six scores in the first were his responsibility. He gave up three hits and walked two. Hibbs pitched two innings and surrendered two runs on three hits and punched out four.
Including Love and Hibbs, the Cardinals ran out 12 pitchers. Danny Fernandez worked two-thirds of an inning, Brandon Kirkham 1.1 frames and Eric Foshee an inning. Kirkham and Foshee both finished without a hit allowed.
Ryan Cawthon worked two-thirds of an inning before he was relieved by Joe Farley who completed the inning. Galen Andrews took over in the seventh and almost tight roped out of a run, but a wild pitch got him. He gave a leadoff walk to Greg Diechmann followed by a double from Stevenson for runners on first and third. He struck out Bryce Jordan and Danny Zardon popped up on the infield, but Diechmann scored on a wild pitch.
Kyle Leggett, Travis Moore, Brett Brown and Enrique Oquendo combined for an inning with a run surrendered on two hits and a walk.
LSU’s starter Kyle Bouman (1-1) worked five innings and allowed the homer to Satran. He gave up only five hits and did not walk a batter.
Satran and Eckols, the eight and nine-hole hitters, combined to go 3-of-6 with one run batted in and one scored. Santana finished his night with two hits in four at-bats .
The Cardinals return to Southland Conference play on Friday at 6 o’clock with Houston Baptist at Vincent-Beck Stadium. Game two of the three-game set is at 2:00 Saturday and the finale is at 1 o’clock on Sunday.
LU only has two midweek games left in the 2015 regular season, next at Baylor on Tuesday.
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Arkansas 15, Stephen F. Austin 3
Recap to follow.