BEAUMONT – Tarleton continued to fight all the way to the finish, but it ultimately was not enough as they were topped 5-4 by the Lamar Cardinals at Vincent-Beck Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Texans (17-36, 10-20 WAC) were down 5-1 after six innings of play, but three runs in the next two innings from the Texans made it a 5-4 nail biter in the ninth inning.
Lamar (36-19, 20-10 WAC) brought in closer Jack Dallas (S, 13) who pitched in all three games of the series and blanked the Texans in the ninth as Lamar held on for the win.
Riley Boyd (L, 1-5) started for Tarleton and pitched three solid innings holding the Cardinals scoreless before allowing a three-run home run in the fourth from Matthew McDonald, who was a thorn in the Texans side all series.
Boyd threw 3.1 innings allowing three runs on four hits. He struck out two and walked one.
Four different Texans threw in relief, but none were as impressive as freshman Jake Burcham who tossed 3.0 shutout innings. He pitched from the bottom of the fifth to the bottom of the eighth. Burcham struck out three and walked one, allowing just one hit.
Lamar added two more runs in the fifth to make it a 5-1 advantage as Jon Cordaway pitched. They plated their runs off two singles and a double.
Tarleton struck first in the first inning when Jake Escalon hit an RBI single to left field to score Taylor Daniell.
Corey Young pinch hit for Bryan Aguilar in the seventh inning. His insertion into the lineup was the spark the Texan bats needed. With runners on first and second, Young put a ball through the left side of the Cardinal defense to score Zach Mesa and make it 5-2.
In the eighth inning with two outs and the bases loaded, Young singled through the left side of the infield again, this time for a two-run single as Escalon and Mesa scored.
Young, Escalon and Kemuel Thomas-Rivera each had two hits. Escalon had an RBI and Young had three.
The Texans season is now complete. They finished fifth out of sixth in the WAC Southwest Division.
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