Box Score BEAUMONT, Texas – The New Orleans Privateers baseball team (10-21, 2-11 Southland) could not recover from a rocky start in a 9-1 loss to the Lamar Cardinals (19-15, 6-7) on Friday night at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
Lamar struck early off of starter
Alex Smith. After back-to-back one-out singles, Jacoby Middleton singled through the right side of the infield to drive in the first run of the game. The Privateers had a chance to limit the damage, but a throwing error allowed the second run to score. An RBI single by Mason Salazar made it 3-0 after one inning.
The Cardinals added two more in the third to make Smith's outing a short one. A run-scoring single by Kyle Markum and a sac fly RBI by Salazar finished the night for Smith after just 2.1 innings.
Blake Prest came in and retired the next two batters to finish the third with the Privateers trailing 5-0.
Prest went three shutout innings and
Tyler Schwaner followed up with 1.2 shutout innings of his own. New Orleans scored their only run of the game in the eighth. With the bases loaded and two outs, the Cardinals went to the bullpen for Devin Wade. On the first batter faced, Wade surrendered an RBI single to
Reese Kanter. The tying run came to the plate, but Wade struck out
Hezekiah Randolph to end the biggest threat of the game.
Kanter went 3-for-4 on the night.
Jonathan Coco added a pair of hits. New Orleans had only one hit off of starter Will Hibbs through the first six innings, and did not get a runner into scoring position until the seventh.
Hibbs allowed four hits and one run in 7.2 innings to move to 4-1 on the season. Wade picked up the save, his first of the year. The Cardinals had 14 hits on the night, but only one of those went for extra bases. Eight Cardinals starters collected a hit with only Jude Vidrine (0-for-5).
The two teams will square off in the second game of the series at 2 p.m.
Nick Halliday will start for the Privateers while Chase Angelle goes for Lamar.
