Lion Baseball Looks to Maintain Momentum Against Islanders

Southeastern plays host to Texas A&M Corpus Christi in return to SLC action.

Ryan Boudreaux is among the league leaders in several categories.

HAMMOND - Fresh off a season sweep of Louisiana-Lafayette, the Southesastern Louisiana University baseball team (21-14, 10-8 Southland Conference) will look to maintain its momentum when the Lions return to SLC action against the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders (13-24, 5-13 SLC) by hosting a three-game set beginning Friday at 6 p.m. at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field in Hammond.

The Lions will look to rebound from a three-game series sweep at the hands of the Texas State Bobcats last weekend in their previous conference outing that knocked Southeastern out of a tie for first in the SLC and into a tie for fifth.

Southeastern will try to take advantage of an Islander squad that enters the weekend in last place in the conference with a 5-13 mark. However, the Lions are not looking past TAMUCC, which enters the contest following a pair of hard-fought losses at No. 6 Texas on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We're going to have to stay aggressive on the basepaths and at the plate," head coach Jay Artigeus said. "We're at our most successful when we're putting pressure on the defense and making adjustments at the plate, and that's what we'll have to do against them this weekend."

With the top six teams in the SLC separated by just three games, the Lions hope their momentum will turn into an opportunity to regain some ground on the rest of the field.

The Lion offense returned to form on Wednesday night, plating nine runs against the Cajuns for Southeastern largest run output since scoring ten in a March 29 win over Lamar.

Sophomore catcher/infielder Josh Cryer has set the pace for the Lions lately. Cryer enters Friday night's contest with three consecutive multi-hit games to his credit.

With the lineup picking up steam, the Southeastern weekend rotation will also look to return to form against the Islanders.

Junior right hander Ryan Boudreaux struggled his last time out at Texas State. The right hander snapped a personal five-game winning streak by picking up a loss for the first time since Feb. 22.

However, Boudreaux still enters the weekend among the league leaders in opponent batting average (second at .237), wins (tied for third with five), innings pitched (fourth at 55.0), strikeouts (ninth with 40) and ERA (tenth at 3.93), and will look to regain his form against TAMUCC on Friday.

First pitch for Friday's series opener is set for 6 p.m. at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field. Live stats and streaming audio play-by-play will be available online at www.LionSports.net, and the game can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU 90.9 FM.

Print Friendly Version