HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team returns to action beginning Thursday when it plays host to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a three-game Southland Conference series at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.

First pitch for Thursday's opener is slated for 6 p.m. The series will resume on Friday with a 6 p.m. start before concluding on Saturday at 2. All three games can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU-FM (90.9) and on the internet at www.LionSports.net.

Thursday's game is Little Lions Day with all children, ages 12 and younger, receiving free admission to the game. All children attending the game will be able to stand with the Lions during the National Anthem prior to the game and will be able to run the bases and receive autographs after the game.

Southeastern (24-14, 10-8 SLC) looks to get back into the race for the top spot after dropping two of three games last week at co-leader Texas State. The Lions, who are currently three games behind Texas State and Stephen F. Austin for first, are 11-5 at home this season and have won seven of their last eight.

Senior Cass Hargis looks to make history in the series against A&M-Corpus Christi (22-18, 7-11 SLC) as he looks to pass former Lion teammate Ty Summerlin as the school's all-time leading hitter. The fifth-year senior enters the weekend with 274 career hits, two shy of Summerlin's mark of 276 from 2006-09.

The former Holy Cross product passed Summerlin in Tuesday's 13-8 loss at Tulane by starting in his school-record 211th career game. Hargis, the school's all-time leader in runs scored (201), at-bats (874) and triples (16), is tied for fifth in RBI (132) and has played in 213 games in his career – three shy of the school record set by Summerlin and Joe Labruzzo (1996-99).

Justin Boudreaux paces Southeastern at the plate with a .355 average and is second on the team in both home runs (6) and RBI (32). Brock Hebert (.350-1-22) is next in hitting for Southeastern at .340 with a team-high 17 stolen bases while Jonathan Pace (.340-1-26), Jeff Harkensee (.325-8-43), Hargis (.298-0-13), Josh Cryer (.287-2-17) and Cody Gougler (.282-1-19) are next.

Southeastern will send right-hander Brandon Efferson (6-2, 3.97 ERA) to the mound in Thursday's opener with the Islanders expected to send Ian Campbell (5-3, 3.61 ERA).

Efferson, a former Zachary High product, is 22-14 in his career at Southeastern, trailing Kenny Lehrmann (25) and Chris Laiche (24) for most wins in school history.

Senior right-hander Tyler Watkins (6-1, 2.12 ERA) will start in Friday's contest with Saturday's starter to be determined.

A&M-CC, which played at Rice on Wednesday, is hitting .297 as a team with four regulars hitting .328 or above. Matt Holland leads the Islanders at the plate with a .368 average and is tied for the team-lead with 37 RBI. Jacob Perales (.346-3-33), Jeramie Marek (.333-0-14) and Trey Hernandez (.328-10-37) are the top hitters for A&M-CC, which has lost its last six games.

The Islanders are expected to send right-hander Justin Meza (2-2, 5.61 ERA) to the mound on Friday before southpaw Todd Simko (5-6, 6.39) is slated to start on Saturday.

Tickets are available by calling the Southeastern Athletic Ticket Office at (985) 549-5466 or on-line at www.LionSports.net.