ILB Back in Action

After some technical difficulties kept ILB down last week we are now up and running again…so here is a recap of the past week.

After beating the Tulane Green Wave 3-2 last Tuesday night in front of an electrifying crowd, the Lions went on the road to take on SLC rival Lamar in Beaumont, TX. As all college baseball teams do during a 56 game season, the Lions hit a cool spell as they struggled during games 1 and 2 of the series. During Thursday’s series opening game the SLU’s defense committed 5 errors which lead to 4 unearned runs. Also the Lions could not get the timely hits and fell to Lamar 7-4. It was the first time SLU lost the opening game of a series this year.

On Friday the Lions jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. After getting 2 hits in the 1st inning the Lions could only muster 4 hits the rest of the night and stranded 9 base runners. Lamar went off at the plate collecting 14 hits and won the series with a 8-1 victory. The loss gave the Lions their first weekend series loss of the season. Cody Gougler lead the Lions at the plate as he picked up 3 of the Lions 6 hits. He finished the day 3-4 with 2 2B and a RBI.

But as all championship caliber teams do the Lions rose to the occasion on Saturday. With a win SLU would only be 1 game back of SLC Leader Texas State. A loss would send the Lions to the middle of the pack in a tight conference race. The #21 ranked team in the land was up to the challenge as they got a strong pitching performance from Jordan Hymel and Josh Janway, as they held the Cardinals to only 4 hits. With the bats waking up the Lions went on to win 5-1 and salvage the series. Chris Franklin lead the way at the plate going 3-4 with a run scored.

After going 2-2 on the week all is still good in Hammond. The Lions are now 24-5 on the season, and 8-4 in the SLC. They are tied with McNeese State as they sit 1 game out of first behind Texas State, who visit’s “The Pat” April 16-18. As for the national polls this week, SLU remains #22 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll, fell 1 spot to #24 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll, and fell 1 spot to #22 in the NCBWA poll.