Lamar sports information

FRISCO — Anticipating another successful season for Lamar’s baseball team, the Southland Conference coaches, the league’s media, D1 Baseball, and Perfect Game predicted that the Cardinals would make a third straight appearance in the SLC tournament. The Southland’s poll has the Cardinals finishing 2018 in sixth place, and the Perfect Game and D1 Baseball polls have the Cards in fourth.

“On one hand we’re honored to be picked in the top half of a conference with so many good teams,” said head coach Will Davis. “On the other hand, fourth-sixth is not where we want to finish and we are going to fight hard to improve that.”

Tanner Driskill, Robin Adames, and Grant DeVore each received preseason all-conference veneration Tuesday for their respective 2017 performances. Driskill was named to the 2018 Perfect Game All-Southland preseason team, and Adames and DeVore earned second-team All-Southland honors from the league.

D1 Baseball released its own preseason evaluations Thursday, and Lamar had five student-athletes that were named as top prospects. Joining Driskill and Adames on the 2018 Top Prospects list is Kristjan Storrie, Cole Coker earned a spot on the 2019 Top Prospects list, and Chase Kemp was named an impact freshman.

Perfect Game named Storrie, Adames, Driskill, Grason Wright, and Rhett McCall to their Top Prospect lists. All told, seven different players received some sort of preseason recognition.

“It’s exciting that seven different players on our team are recognized as top prospects by the different publications that cover college baseball,” said Davis. “I think it is a testament to the talent that we have in this program. What’s particularly exciting is that many of them are freshmen or sophomores.”

Feb. 16 marks the first time Cardinal fans can see the 2016 recruiting class, ranked 73rd in the nation and best among Southland Conference teams, in action. 20 student-athletes will be making their Big Red debuts next Friday when LU opens the Cardinal Classic against Illinois. The Classic will feature the Fighting Illini, Missouri State, and Texas Southern. Lamar currently holds two-game win streaks against each of those teams.