By Jason Pugh, Northwestern State Associate Athletic Director for External Relations; featured photo by Gary Hardamon, NSU Photographic Services
NATCHITOCHES – Northwestern State and Lamar each had seven hits in Thursday night’s Southland Conference baseball series opener at Brown-Stroud Field.
The visiting Cardinals, however, delivered theirs at the right time and took advantage of some non-complementary Demon baseball to grab an 8-2 victory.
“Moving forward, we just have to really make a commitment to limit the runs of self-infliction from a pitching and defensive standpoint and get back to truly making them earn every bit of it,” second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. “Offensively, we just have to find our way through trying to get that two-out or that two-strike hit with runners in scoring position. I did make great mention to the team of how, I think, offensively one of our strengths has been on-base percentage. We have been having some good at-bats to the point where we’re creating some pressure and we’re creating some opportunities that is becoming a strength. We need to have the two-strike approach or the two-out approach in run-producing at-bats to try to match that level of strength.”
Down 1-0 after a half inning, the Demons (22-17, 13-9) had a two-out base runner after Lamar shortstop Zane Spinn committed the first of his two errors on the night.
With a hard wind blowing in from right field, Rocco Gump drove a fly ball to right field where Lamar’s Damian Ruiz made a leaping grab to rob Gump of a go-ahead, two-run home run.
An inning later, Clay Jung tagged Olivier (5-1) for a solo home run to right-center field to tie the game before the Cardinals (32-8, 13-6) unleashed a torrent of two-out runs in the third inning to swing momentum in their favor.
The four-run third for Lamar featured a two-out RBI single from Heladio Moreno then four straight walks and a run-scoring wild pitch off Dylan Marionneaux (3-4).
Given the way Olivier and reliever Peyton Havard (fourth save) pitched with runners aboard, the Cardinals had more than enough offense.
The two Lamar right-handers held Northwestern to a 3-for-18 performance with runners on base as the Demons stranded 10 on the night. In their past four Southland games, the Demons have left 41 runners aboard.
While Marionneaux was knocked out of the game in the third inning, freshman left-hander Carter White fanned a career-high six hitters in a career-long 5 1-3 innings before fellow freshman Kaden McCoy gave up an unearned run in the ninth.
“There are definitely positives to take from it,” Bertrand said. “(The bullpen) is one of those things that can help the baseball team in the big picture of the total series. We’ve talked at length about balance, and for us, we need to look at, again, with a high-stakes series and with where we are in the season, we need to learn from tonight what we can. We also need to pull the positives from what we can pull, and then we need to use that knowledge to be a better baseball team on Friday and Saturday. That’s what we’ve been doing all season.”
The series continues with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch Friday. Northwestern will send right-hander Tyler Bryan (1-5, 6.60) to the mound against Lamar’s Riely Hunsaker (2-2, 2.87).0
Lamar 8, Northwestern State 2
LU 104 010 011 – 8 7 2
NSU 010 000 010 – 2 7 2
W – Chris Olivier (5-1). L – Dylan Marionneaux (3-4). S – Peyton Havard (4). 2B – LU, Zak Skinner. NSU, Samuel Stephenson. HR – LU, Matt Ryan (4). NSU, Clay Jung (6). Highlights: LU, Skinner 2-4, HR, 2 RBIs. NSU, Jung 2-4, HR, RBI.
Records: Lamar 32-8, 13-6; Northwestern State 22-17, 13-9.
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