BEAUMONT – The Sam Houston Bearkats could not overcome an early deficit in an 11-3 loss to the Lamar Cardinals on Tuesday night at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
The Cardinals (23-5), who were coming off a weekend sweep of No. 25 Oklahoma, stayed red hot on their home field and closed out the night as winners of 17 of their last 18 games overall.
Ryan Peterson took the loss for the Kats after allowing four runs in 2.0 innings of work, while Marshall Wales did a nice job in relief, striking out one in 3.0 scoreless innings of relief. The Kats used a quintet of arms after Wales' departure, including Rome Shubert who got the final two outs of the eighth inning.
Lamar starter Jackson Cleveland was credited with his third win of the season after 4.0 perfect innings of work for the Cardinals. He was followed by relievers Kyle Moseley and Peyton Havard who combined to strike out a pair while not issuing a free pass.
Offensively, the Kats finished with had just five hits through the first eight frames before Hunter Autrey and Malachi Lott hit solo homers in the top of the ninth. Lott finished as the lone Kat with a multi-hit game while Brady Christensen had a single and drove in the first run of the night with a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Jake Tatom added a double while Jeffrey David and Lane Brewster Christensen also had singles.
Lamar felt at home right out of the gate on Tuesday, getting three extra-base hits in the first inning off of Sam Houston starter Ryan Peterson. A triple from Brayden Evans was followed by an RBI double by River Orsak to put the Cardinals up 1-0 and one batter later Zak Skinner lifted a fly ball to left field that carried out for his fourth longball of the year to elevate the lead to 3-0.
Ethan Ruiz then led off the bottom of the second inning with a solo blast to straightaway center field to up the advantage to 4-0 and Cardinal starter Jackson Cleveland did his part on the mound, setting down all 12 of the Bearkats he faced before exiting after 4.0 innings of work.
Moseley then entered for Lamar and made it 14 in a row retired to start the game until Christensen gave the Kats their first base runner with a 2-out single in the top of the fifth.
Meanwhile, Wales was in the midst of holding the Cardinals in check with 3.0 innings of scoreless relief and the Bearkat offense looked like it was ready to work its way back into things in the sixth when Brewster singled and Tatom doubled to put a pair of runners in scoring position. However, Brewster was thrown out at the plate by Orsak trying to score from third on a fly ball by Walker Janek to end the threat.
Lamar then took advantage of the momentum and added another run to its tally on a sacrifice fly by Austin Roccaforte in the bottom of the sixth. The Kats answered with a similar situation as the sixth, this time getting their first run home on a sacrifice fly by Christensen, but no more.
Orsak then got involved again, smashing a 2-out homer in the bottom of the seventh to up the lead to 7-1. One inning later the Cardinals put it away, pushing four more across against the Kats' bullpen.
UP NEXT
The Kats will now head west for the second time in four weekends when they travel to Albuquerque to battle New Mexico for a three-game, non-conference series beginning Friday night. First pitch for Friday's series opener at Santa Ana Star Field is set for 7:00 p.m. CT with each game of the series to be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
