Four-Run First, Effective Pitching Help 'Jacks Finish Sweep of Lamar with 5-3 Sunday Win

Sunday, March 10

Beaumont, Texas

1:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

8-8, 3-0

Lamar

6-9, 0-3

Stephen F. Austin

Lamar

Photo by: SFA Athletics

Four-Run First, Effective Pitching Help 'Jacks Finish Sweep of Lamar with 5-3 Sunday Win

3/10/2019 4:47:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

'Jacks secure first sweep in Southland Conference opening series since 2012

By: Charlie Hurley | Director of Athletic Media Relations

BEAUMONT, Texas - In the first two games of their Southland Conference series against Lamar, the SFA baseball team relied on a pair of quality outings from their starting pitchers.

Sunday's finale against the Cardinals, conversely, saw the 'Jacks use five arms who did and excellent job of making the right pitch at the right time to sew up the team's first leadoff Southland Conference sweep of a season since 2011.

Senior infielder Manny Vasquez capped SFA's early assault on Lamar starter Taylor Rich with a two-run shot to left-center in the 'Jacks' four-run first and five Lumberjack pitchers stranded 14 runners on the base paths to help their squad complete a three-game sweep of the Cardinals with a 5-3 triumph Sunday afternoon at Vincent-Beck Stadium.

SCORING SUMMARY
T1 | SFA's four-run first all started with a four-pitch walk to leadoff man Nick Daley. After swiping second (his third stolen base of the series) Lamar's first error of the game moved him 90 feet from home. Freshman Brandon Uhse handed the 'Jacks' a lead they would never relinquish with an RBI single to shortstop. Jordan Monacy pushed SFA's lead to 2-0 with a one-out RBI double that brought Uhse home. From there, Vasquez put the finishing touches on the 'Jacks' four-run frame by smacking his second homer of the season.

B1 | Wanting to match SFA's production on offense, Avery George led off with a single for the Cardinals in the home half of the first. He later came around to score on an RBI groundout courtesy of JC Correa.

B2 | Rhett McCall pulled Lamar within two of SFA by cranking a 1-0 offering from SFA starter Jacob Stobart out of the park. That solo shot was one of the Cardinals' two hits in the frame and trimmed the 'Jacks' lead to 4-2.

T6 | Another leadoff walk led to an important insurance run for the visitors. Jared Martin took first after winning a seven-pitch battle with Ryan Erickson. After stealing second, Martin moved to third on a fly ball before coming home when Lamar's infield sent a throw past first on a ground ball from Manny Vasquez with two outs in the frame.

B8 | Before closing things out, SFA saw its lead go from 5-2 to 5-3 in the home half of the eighth. Reese Durand and George struck for one-out singles off of right-hander Jeremy Rodriguez and a two-out RBI single from Correa made it a two-run game. Jesus Gamez, however, entered the game and ended the Cardinals' threat by inducing a ground ball out off the bat of Robin Adames.

AT THE DISH
• Martin, Uhse and Vasquez each finished with a pair of hits and a run scored. That trio represented two-thirds of the 'Jacks' nine hits while Uhse and Vasquez drove in three of the visitors' five runs on the afternoon.
• Five different Cardinals each totaled a pair of hits to account for all 10 Lamar base-knocks in the home team's fourth consecutive loss. Correa was one of those individuals with a pair of hits and he drove in two of Lamar's three runs.

ON THE MOUND
• Staked to an early 4-0 lead, Stobart eventually got credit for the win - his second of the year. The junior racked up two of SFA's seven strikeouts
• Grabowske worked a team-long 2 2/3 innings on the hill, striking out three and letting up just a single hit during his splendid middle relief effort.
• For the second time in as many games, Jesus Gamez stepped in to close things out. The senior fired 1 1/3 frames of no-hit ball to earn his second save of the season.
• In Lamar's dugout, Rich (0-1) went only two innings and suffered the loss after giving up four of the five SFA runs. Erickson turned in four solid innings of relief work, striking out two and surrendering just one hit and an unearned run.

ON DECK
• Upon returning home to Jaycees Field, the 'Jacks will begin their five-game home stand by stepping out of Southland Conference play to host Patriot League adversary Army. SFA battles the Black Knights in game one of the two-game set at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.

CARDENAS COMMENTS
On the collective effort of SFA's pitching staff on Sunday and through the whole weekend: "We had some guys who had settled into a few specific roles who had to be in there a little earlier than we expected but we felt like that's what we had to do. Sundays are always dogfights and you have to manage your staff that way. That's what we decided to do and coach [Bo] Martino did a good job of putting those guys in during certain situations, coming to me and diagnosing every situation correctly and I can't say enough about the job he did all weekend long."

On the sweep of Lamar: "You always want to get off to a fast start. We can enjoy this weekend for a little bit but we have another game we have to get ready for on Tuesday and from there conference play picks up against next weekend. We have to continue to be locked in from the get-go.

-SFA-