Privateers Baseball To Begin Series Against Lamar on Thursday

NEW ORLEANS AT LAMAR
MARCH 24-26 | 6:00, 6:00, 1:00 PM
VINCENT-BECK STADIUM | BEAUMONT, TEXAS

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The University of New Orleans baseball team (16-5, 4-2 Southland) will once again hit the road in a series that starts Thursday against the Lamar Cardinals (13-7, 4-2) at Vincent-Beck Stadium. First pitch for the series opener is slated for 6 p.m.
 
The Privateers are coming in off an 8-2 victory over South Alabama on Tuesday night. Freshman, Bryan Warzek picked up his first collegiate victory and shut out the Jaguars over seven innings, his longest outing of the season. Jay Robinson picked up three hits and Hezekiah Randolph drove in two runs on two sac flies as UNO ran their home record to 14-1.
 
"Our games aren't going to get any easier," said Coach Blake Dean. "Our mid-week games a lot of times are just as difficult if not more so than our conference games so it prepares us, it gets us going, and takes us right into the weekend."
 
UNO collected their 12^th game of 10 or more hits in Tuesday's win. The Privateers have 233 hits on the season which ranks them in the top 25 in the nation in that category. UNO also leads the Southland in batting average at .322 entering the weekend series.
 
Ryan Calloway carries an eight game hitting streak into the weekend after picking up two hits on Tuesday. Calloway is batting .326 on the year and has 19 runs. Calloway also has eight multi-hit games on the season and has achieved three hits in a game three times.
 
The Privateers have the overall lead in the series at 49-43, but Lamar has gotten the better of the most recent meetings. The Cardinals have won six straight meetings over UNO since the Privateers entered the Southland Conference. The last Privateer victory over Lamar was achieved in Feb. 2002 in New Orleans.
 
Shawn Semple is scheduled to go in the series opener with one less day of rest for the second week in a row. Riley Hodge is slated for the Friday contest and Jordan Priddle will start the series finale on Saturday.  Lamar will counter with Will Hibbs on Thursday and Billy Love on Friday. The Saturday starter is yet to be officially announced.
 
"It's a day shorter for our pitchers, but last week we had two bad outings so pitch counts stayed pretty low," said Dean. "I don't think one less day will affect a bounce back."
 
Lamar did not have a mid-week game after completing a weekend sweep over Central Arkansas to move their conference mark to 4-2. The Cardinals pushed across 35 runs in the series including 19 in the series opener. Jim Gilligan enters his 39^th season with the team and has racked up 1,323 total wins, which ranks in the top 20 all-time.
 
Two Cardinals are coming in with double digit hitting streaks. Stijn Van der Meer has hit safely in 10 straight games and Reid Russell has a hit in 12 straight. Russell was named Southland Conference Hitter of the Week after mashing four homers as part of a 3-1 week for the Cardinals. Russell co-leads the conference in home runs with eight.
 
Season tickets for the 2016 campaign are available for as low as $125 and single-game tickets start at $5. For additional information, contact the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263) or click HERE.
 
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