BEAUMONT, Texas (2/19/12) - The Arkansas State baseball team (0-2) suffered a 10-2 setback to Lamar (2-0) on Sunday at Vincent-Beck Stadium in its final game of the Lamar Classic.
Neither team was able to get a hit to fall the first two innings, but Lamar plated at least one run in each of the next four innings to build a 9-0 advantage by the end of the sixth. ASU was able to put together just three hits over the first seven innings, while the Cardinals strung together 11 hits during their nine-run outburst.
Lamar started the scoring with three runs in the third inning, then added two in the fourth, one in the fifth and three in the sixth. ASU got on the board for the first time in the top of the eighth inning with two runs to make the score 9-2. The Red Wolves were able to record three hits, including a solo home run by Claude Johnson, during the inning, but left three runners stranded to end its biggest offensive threat of the day.
Lamar came back in the bottom half of the inning with one more run to set the final score at 10-2. ASU finished the game with six hits to Lamar's 15. The Red Wolves had one error as all three Lamar runs in the third inning were unearned.
"They had some big innings and great at-bats, and they have some really nice hitters in the middle of their lineup," said ASU head coach Tommy Raffo. "They did a nice job in the middle innings of extending their lead. Within about three innings they scored six and their starter was pitching well.
"Give Lamar credit, but we didn't do a very good job those first six innings. I thought our at-bats offensively were much more aggressive in the late innings and it started to show. Hopefully we can learn from that and take it into next week because we've got five games over seven days. We obviously tried to get a look at as many guys as we could over two games, but they beat us today. They did a good job offensively against us."
Including Johnson, A-State got a hit from six different players that included Kaleb Brown, Zach George, Drew Burks, Ryan Emery and Stuart Levy. Emery recorded an RBI, driving home George in the eighth inning.
Daniel Wright gave up five runs, although just two were earned, on six hits over the first four innings and took the loss. Lamar's Jonathan Dziedzic picked up the victory, allowing just three hits over six innings of work.
ASU returns to action Tuesday with a 3 p.m. game against Ole Miss in Oxford.
