After last weekend’s home series was rained out, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff baseball team returns to the road on Wednesday.
UAPB will play Lamar at 6 p.m. at Vincent-Beck Stadium in Beaumont, Texas, on ESPN+.
UAPB (5-25) is looking to break a five-game losing streak, but Wednesday’s Southland Conference foe will be another tough challenge.
Lamar (26-8) is 16-2 at home this season. The Cardinals are coming off a 4-2 home loss to Texas-Arlington on Sunday in what was the finale of a three-game series. Lamar won the first two games, which were the final games of an 11-game winning streak. Sunday’s loss was Lamar’s first since March 16.
The Cardinals’ only other home loss came March 7 to Stephen F. Austin, 2-0, in the opener of a three-game series which Lamar won. The Cardinals are undefeated in midweek games.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Lamar has the best team batting average, .316, and the second-best team ERA, 3.86, in the Southland. Sophomore outfielder Damian Ruiz is hitting .419 this season, while senior outfielder Heladio Moreno is hitting .400. Only one player in the Southland is hitting better, though the SWAC has four such hitters.
Senior lefthanded pitcher Kyle Moseley has started Lamar’s past two midweek games and three of the past five, though he doesn’t have an outing longer than three innings this season. He has seven relief appearances to go with his three starts and has an ERA of 8.59.
Jayden Shertel, another senior lefty, started the other two recent midweek games but also hasn’t had an outing longer than three innings to go with his 4.97 ERA.
UAPB senior righthander Chris Bedgood (ERA 9.45) has been UAPB’s most frequent midweek starter, though Jaedon Willis (6.23) and Major Spence (3.46) also have midweek starts this season.
This will be the Golden Lions’ first game since falling 8-7 in walk-off fashion last Wednesday in the second game of a two-game midweek series at Missouri.
It will give UAPB a chance to shake off any rust from not playing over the weekend before heading to Houston to face Texas Southern this weekend.