BEAUMONT, Texas — Kirkland Banks bashed a solo home run in the bottom half of the second – his first career home run – to start the offense, and Lamar University scored two in the seventh and two more in the eighth to defeat Texas Southern, 7-4, Tuesday night at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
Zach Williams got the start for the Cardinals (17-12) and went 4.0 innings allowing three runs on five hits with three strikeouts. He was one of four Cardinals to pitch on the night. Adam Davis got the win after going 0.1 of an inning with a strikeout and Jack Dallas pitched the final two innings to record his fifth save of the season.
Lane Gordon got the start for TSU and went 5.1 innings surrendering three earned runs on six hits. He was relieved by Josiah Castro who came on in the sixth inning and gave up four runs – two earned – on six hits and took the loss (3-3).
Big Red scored its seven runs on 12 hits. The 12 hits came from five different players including three-hit efforts from Chase Kemp (3-of-4 with a home run and two RBIs and three runs) and Ryan Snell (3-of-5 with two RBIs).
Banks’ homer in the bottom of the second tied the game as TSU opened the scoring with a run in the top half of the inning. LU took its first lead of the game in the third when they got an RBI from Snell.
Texas Southern plated two in their half of the fourth to take a 3-2 lead, but their advantage didn’t last long as the Cardinals responded with one in the bottom of the fifth. The score remained tied until the bottom half of the seventh with the Cardinals plated two more. Kemp got the inning started with a leadoff home run to left. The no-doubter was his third of the season and gave the Cardinals a one-run lead. The Cardinals followed with a single from Reese Durand and a Snell double to put runners on second and third with no outs. Matthew McDonald was able to bring another run home when he grounded out to short.
After the bullpen hung another zero on the board in the top half of the eighth, the Cardinals went in search of some insurance in the bottom half. Big Red was aided by a TSU error off the bat of Ruiz. With one out in the inning Kemp hit one back up the middle scoring Ruiz. After a wild pitch moved runners to second and third with just one out, Kelby Weyler scored on a sacrifice fly off the back of Durand.
Dallas came back out for his second inning of work in the ninth, and allowed a run, but shut the door after that to add to his school record number of saves.
The Cardinals are back in action Wednesday when they host Northwestern State. The rematch against the Demons will begin at 6 p.m. from Vincent-Beck Stadium.