Box Score BEAUMONT, Texas – The Northwestern State baseball team put together a couple of late-game rallies in its Southland Conference series opener at Lamar on Friday night.
 
However, the Cardinals built a big enough lead and Brooks Caple made it stand up, lifting Lamar to an 8-4 win at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
 
"The story of the night is we didn't do enough in any phase of the game to deserve a different result," first-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "We competed. As the game went along, we played much better. We solved some problems, but the bottom line is we didn't do enough to pressurize them early on with our offense, and we didn't play good enough defense to suppress runs when it was necessary. We also didn't execute pitches in a way that allowed us to suppress runs."
 
For the first six innings, the Demons (18-27, 9-10) were suppressed by Lamar right-hander Brooks Caple, who retired the first 18 NSU hitters he faced until Reese Lipoma reached on a leadoff error in the seventh.
 
Down 4-0 at the time, Northwestern State took advantage of its first base runner of the game as Balin Valentine, the reigning Southland Conference Hitter of the Week, followed with a two-run home run to slice the deficit in half.
 
It was Valentine's sixth home run in conference play and gave the junior outfielder 24 RBIs in league play. It also extended his hitting streak to a career-long 12-game hit streak.
 
"When you talk about where he is in his individual game, not only are we proud of the performances he continues to have, but you notice his energy continues to give our ballclub some momentum," Bertrand said. "The swings he takes and the results he has continues to give life to our side of it. We have to duplicate or find some other ways to generate that in addition to just one or two swings on the night."
 
With Caple cruising, the league-leading Cardinals (35-9, 13-3) took the lead with a three-run third inning against Chase Prestwich (4-5).
 
Lamar made it a four-run lead in the sixth, using three walks and a sacrifice fly to extend the lead.
 
The Cardinals answered Valentine's home run with a two-run Zak Skinner home run in the bottom of the seventh before tacking on two more runs in the eighth inning.
 
Those proved to be key runs as the Demons finally solved Caple in the ninth inning. NSU put together three doubles in the inning, including a two-run Rocco Gump double with two outs, before the Cardinals hung on to snap NSU's four-game win streak.
 
The series continues at 5 p.m. Saturday. Sophomore right-hander Tyler Bryan (1-1) will start for Northwestern State against Lamar left-hander Jacob Ellis (7-0, 3.08).
 
 
Lamar 8, Northwestern State 4
NSU     000 000 202 – 4 4 1
Lamar 003 001 22x – 8 9 1
W – Brooks Caple (6-3). L – Chase Prestwich (4-5). 2B – NSU, Reese Lipoma, Rocco Gump, Braden Benton. LU, Kanin Dodge, Ethan Ruiz. HR – NSU, Balin Valentine (8). LU, Zak Skinner (6). Highlights: LU, Brayden Evans 2-4, RBI; Ruiz 2-2, 2B.
Records: Northwestern State 18-27, 9-10; Lamar 35-9, 13-3.