Senior infielder Kevin Carr received Southland Conference Hitter of the Week honors for his efforts on offense over the weekend.
The Lion’s Roar / Melanie Mann

The Lions baseball team managed to claim its stake at the top of the Southland Conference thanks in part to a sweep of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders. Southeastern (19-7, 7-2 Southland) had to fight back from deficits in both of the first two games, but managed to comeback to defeat the Islanders (10-10, 2-4 Southland) both times.

As inclement weather threatened, the teams were forced to alter the schedule of the series to a doubleheader Friday and playing the finale Sunday. 

Getting the nod for the first game of the doubleheader Friday was junior pitcher Tate Scioneaux. The Reserve native picked up his fourth win of the season after pitching 6.1 innings. Entering into the game in the seventh inning, earning his second win of the season, was freshman Mac Sceroler. 

Despite effective pitching from the mound in game one of the series, the Lions found themselves in a 3-0 hole going into the sixth inning. Finally the bats heated up in the sixth thanks to a single by sophomore designated hitter Daniel Midyett bringing in a run. Midyett’s play was only the start of an inning that would end with the Lions scoring five runs, taking the lead in the process. 

A homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning kept the Islanders in the game with a score of 5-4 in favor of the Lions. It was in the top of the ninth inning that Southeastern was able to tack on an insurance run thanks to an error on the Islanders pitcher. The home team would not find a way to make it back into the game and fell to the Lions 6-4 in game one of the series.

The Lions once again found themselves in a hole in game two of the doubleheader. Jake Johnson took the usual start for the Lions for the second game of the series. The Oklahoma native weathered through a rough second inning in which the Lions gave up four run to the Islanders. Johnson earned the win to remain a perfect 4-0 this season and junior Domenick Carlini entered the game in the sixth inning to pick up his first save of the season.

Texas A&M-CC starting pitcher Trevor Belicek did his fair job of keeping the Lions at bay. For the second consecutive game, Southeastern found a way to burst open for a big inning in the sixth. Once again it was Midyett starting off the explosion of offense. This time it was a double into left field to start the inning which resulted in six runs for the Lions. 

All the Islanders could do was watch as the Lions added on two more runs to their lead in the top of the eighth, resulting in a 7-4 victory in favor of the Lions. 

Head coach Matt Riser was pleased with how the team played over the weekend, bouncing back from a defeat at the hands of Tulane. 

“I’m really proud of the guys. The biggest thing we talked about was consistency after that game Tuesday night. We not only came back in both games, but we took the victory,” said Riser.

Game three featured the Lions getting off to an early start in scoring runs. Multiple errors in the first inning led to three runs scored by the Lions. It would not take long for the Islanders to answer back, as the home team managed two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Starting on the mound for the Lions was junior Kyle Cedotal. Despite allowing five hits in the first two innings, the Denham Springs native allowed only three hits over the remainder of his time on the mound. The left-hander picked up the win, advancing to 3-1 on the season. 

Coach Riser credits the teams’ urgency for each pitch as the reason behind the success of the Lions. 

“The biggest part was doing a better job at competing every pitch. Now we are just focused on the first pitch Tuesday night, then the second pitch and the third pitch and so on,” said Riser. 

The Lions will be in Southland competition again this weekend when they take on Nicholls State University. Game two of the series will be held in Hammond at the Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field and will be a part of Super Lion Saturday. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. More information on Lions baseball can be found at lionsports.net.