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Lamar sweeps A&M - Corpus Christi

Cardinals outscore the Islanders by 18 runs over the series

BEAUMONT, Texas —  Out-hitting Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (24-15, 10-8 SLC) by 15 hits and beating the Islanders by 18 runs, Lamar University (13-23, 5-13 SLC) completed the sweep on Sunday with a 10-4 win over A&M-Corpus Christi.

"We talked a lot about how depleted we are by the injuries to our bullpen, and any time you only have to use five pitchers on the weekend it really helps things out when you're dealing with that injury bug. That all starts with great starting pitching, and I think we got it all three days. I thought Grason had some bad luck with a couple of errors in there, and the two innings he had to minimize he came through and kept us right in the game. I can't say enough about his performance," said head coach Will Davis. "Obviously we had a lot of clutch hits as well, especially with Logan Berlof's big two-out home run in the eighth inning that broke up the tie game. I'm extremely proud of how our guys played this weekend."

Grason Wright threw a seven-inning, five-hit game on Sunday with just two earned runs. He struck out two while allowing two walks. He faced the minimum in the first, second, and fourth innings while throwing 85 pitches and earning his second win of the year. Jack Dallas got his second save with a three-hit, no-run performance through two innings.

Lamar got the scoring started in the first inning. Avery George got the first of his three hits on the day with a single through the left side. He was caught stealing but Cole Girouard singled through the right to put another Cardinal on. JC Correa singled with two outs and Robin Adames got a two-out, two-run error on a deep fly ball to left field. A liner to third ended the inning with Lamar leading 2-0.

A walk of Reese Durand reached second on a single from Jorge Gutierrez. A bunt single from George loaded the bases and a fielder's choice from Girouard scored Durand. Lamar led 3-0 through two.

A&M-Corpus Christi scored its first run in the top of the third inning. A two-out double scored on a single up the middle before a flyer to right ended the threat. Lamar responded with back-to-back doubles from Adames and Logan Berlof. After three innings Lamar led 4-1.

A scoreless fourth inning led into the fifith. A lead-off double, an error that scored one run, and a single all happened with no outs before a sac bunt put two Islanders in scoring position with one out. A sac fly to left scored the third Islander run, and a hit-by-pitch and walk loaded the bases. A 4-3 grounder stranded three A&M-Corpus Christi players with Lamar leading by just one, 4-3, after five.

The Islanders struck again in the top of the seventh. An error reached second on a bunt single and a fielder's choice put Islanders on the corners. A sac bunt to Wright tied the game at 4-4.

Lamar responded in the bottom of the seventh with two outs. Adames worked through a nine-pitch at-bat to draw a walk. Berlof then homered on a 2-2 count to put Lamar up 6-4, representing the winning runs.

The Islanders would put a runner in scoring position in the eighth and again in the ninth but couldn't convert any runs. Lamar got four runs in the bottom of the eighth with five hits and an error on a fielder's choice. Anthony Quirion, Girouard, Cole Coker, Adames, and Berlof each recorded hits with the fielder's choice with no outs coming in Correa's at-bat. All but Quirion's hit came with two outs.

The Cards return to action with a non-conference game at Texas on Tuesday, April 16. The Cards play at Abilene Christian next weekend then head to LSU, New Orleans, and Baylor before returning home at the beginning of May.

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