May 25, 2006

Box Score

BEAUMONT - Luke Cannon and Aaron Garza each went deep, but Texas State was unable to hold off 14 Lamar hits and a walk-off sac fly by Jo Jo Haney in a 7-6 loss to the Cardinals Thursday at Vincent Beck Stadium in Beaumont.

Texas State (29-29) was forced to an elimination contest Friday at 11 a.m. against Northwestern State, while Lamar (35-21), who walked off to a win for the second time in as many tries, will await the Bobcat-Demon winner at 7 p.m. Friday night.

The Bobcats jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Cassidy Dresch scored on a David Wood ground out, but Lamar thundered back in the bottom of the first frame, plating three runs to go up 3-1.

The first Lamar run came on a bases-loaded grounder to second, and Thomas Field's throw to first on the attempted double-play strayed away from Cody Merrell enabling a second run to score, giving Lamar a 2-1 lead.

Matt Lambeth later singled in the inning, scoring Will Henderson to put the Cards up 3-1.

Lamar plated one more in the second before Cannon made history in the third, belting his school-record 18th home run over the right field wall to cut the Cardinal lead to 4-3 on the two-run blast.

The Cardinals tacked on one more in the bottom of the third, which was answered in the top of the fourth by a Kyle Jones RBI single that scored Field to make the score 5-4. Lamar again answered in the bottom of the inning, running the lead to 6-4 on a C.J. Ebarb RBI single that scored Colt Crawford.

Two scoreless frames occupied the next two innings, and in the seventh, Garza followed a Wood fielders' choice with a game-tying blast to left that made the score 6-6 heading into the game's final two and a half innings.

Justin Fiske tied down the seventh and eighth for the `Cats, but in the ninth, Lambeth led off with a double, moved to third on a Ryan Baker ground out, and the Cardinal outfielder scored when Haney lifted a ball to right, deep enough to score the game-winner for the Cards.

Jones finished the day 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI for Texas State, while Cannon had two RBIs and a run scored in a 2-for-4 plate outing.

Henderson finished 3-for-5 for Lamar at the plate, while Erik Kanaby and Crawford each scored twice for the Cards in the win.

Texas State used five pitchers in the game, and despite tossing 2.2 innings with three strike outs and only one hit, Fiske was tagged with the Bobcat loss to fall to 2-7 on the year.

Lamar reliever Allen Harrington tossed the final five for the Cardinals, earning his third win of the year while posting eight strike outs in the game.

Texas State will attempt to avoid elimination Friday, taking on Northwestern State at 11 a.m., after the Demons were run-ruled by Texas-San Antonio in the early game Thursday at Vincent Beck.

Friday's game two features Texas-Arlington and UTSA, while Lamar awaits the winner of Friday's first game in the night-cap.