BEAUMONT, Texas – Few of the elements that built a fast road start in Southland Conference play showed up for the Northwestern State baseball team Friday night at Lamar.
 
The Demons committed a season-high four errors and were held to two hits by Lamar right-hander Chris Olivier as the Cardinals grabbed a 5-0 win in the opener of a three-game conference series at Vincent-Beck Stadium.
 
"It was a night where we were not the right type of competitive, defensively and offensively, and you see the result of when that happens," third-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "I thought (right-hander) Kevin (Robinson) competed his tail off, and I thought he threw the ball really well. Kevin pours into this team and into this program in the right manner, and for a team that is supposed to pride itself on complementary baseball, I didn't think that our defense poured into Kevin tonight."
 
The Demons (23-15, 14-8) committed a pair of first-inning errors that opened the way for the Cardinals (20-18, 12-7) to score three unearned runs off of Robinson in the first inning.
 
Despite the tough start, Robinson (0-3) recovered to toss a season-long 6 1-3 innings, allowing two earned runs in the process.
 
The three early runs were more than enough support for Olivier (5-2), who tossed a complete-game, two-hit shutout, facing just one batter over the minimum while striking out 11.
 
After allowing each of his hits – a leadoff single to Brooks Leonard in the first and Noah McNeil's leadoff single in the sixth – Olivier used his defense to erase them on double plays.
 
Said Bertrand: "Offensively, even thought that guy is a very good arm – and there has to be a tip of the cap for the type of performance he had – I don't know that three base runners on the night is the type of competitive spirit required from the at-bats for us to expect anything different."
 
Robinson matched Olivier from the second through fourth innings before Lane Sparks' solo home run in the fifth. Lamar added an insurance run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
 
"It's unfortunate that, for whatever the reason was, we chose to execute so poorly defensively," Bertrand said. "I feel as though Kevin threw the ball well enough and competed well enough to deserve a little different type of result. Hopefully, we can learn from it, and we can use it to have some type of response tomorrow."
 
Olivier faced the minimum through eight innings before McNeil worked a full-count walk to lead off the ninth inning. Olivier recovered to retire the next three batters.
 
The series continues at 1 p.m. Saturday in a game that has been moved up because of expected inclement weather later Saturday. Right-hander Dylan Marionneaux (4-2, 4.24) takes the mound for Northwestern against Lamar left-hander Jarret Williams (0-2, 2.94).
 
Lamar 5, Northwestern State 0
NSU     000 000 000 – 0 2 4
Lamar 300 010 10x – 5 11 0
W – Chris Olivier (5-2). L – Kevin Robinson (0-3). 2B – LU, Tab Tracy. HR – LU, Lane Sparks (2). Highlights: LU, Tracy 3-5, 2B; Kevin Duran 2-4, RBI; AJ Taylor 2-4.
Records: Northwestern State 23-15, 14-8; Lamar 20-18, 12-7.