FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
BEAUMONT – Local fans will have ample opportunity to experience Lamar Baseball this season as head coach Jim Gilligan announced a 2013 schedule on Friday that features 38 home games at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
Gilligan and co. will be looking to take advantage of the heavy home schedule early, as the Cardinals will play 21 of the first 25 games in Beaumont, beginning with a visit from Northern Kentucky on February 15. The Norse will be playing their first-ever games as an NCAA Division I member and are coming off a 36-22 campaign in Division II last season.
Just days after the NKU series, Lamar will hit the road for an encounter with national powerhouse LSU in Baton Rouge, La., before returning home for the YMBL Cardinal Classic, which will feature defending Missouri Valley champion Creighton and Washington of the Pac-12.
LU will play host to a pair of teams from the east coast in the Ivy League’s Columbia and Atlantic-10’s UMass over the following two weekends before welcoming in Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern for a pair of midweek meetings.
The season’s first true road trip is slated for March 15 as the Cards hit the road for Edinburg to take on UTPA.
Houston Baptist and Houston will bookend the first Southland series of the season, which will feature local rival McNeese State.
LU will set off on an extended road swing on March 28 with games at Central Arkansas and Southeastern Louisiana before returning to Vincent-Beck on April 9 to host Rice.
The Cardinals will then get into the heart of SLC season with meetings vs. Sam Houston State, Northwestern State and Stephen F. Austin before returning the favor to Rice and heading to Reckling Park to take on Rice on May 1.
Oral Roberts, who is entering the Southland on the heels of 15 consecutive Summit League titles, will take on Lamar in Beaumont on May 3, and then the Cards will head off to Corpus Christi the next weekend before closing out the 2013 regular season against Nicholls.
The postseason will begin on May 22 in Sugar Land, Texas, as the Southland Tournament is scheduled to take place at Constellation Field, home of the Atlantic League’s Sugar Land Skeeters.
