THIBODAUX, La.?After needing 10
innings to put a number on the board in the season opener, ULM
wasted no time on Saturday with five runs in the opening frame in a 11-6
victory over Nicholls
State at Didier Field.
The
Warhawks (2-0) have now won six straight over the Colonels (0-2) and 10 of the
last 12 meetings between the old Southland Conference rivals.
Four ULM players recorded multiple
hits and three had multiple RBIs led by Dexter Fontenot's 2-for-3, three RBI
performance. Matt Laird (2-for-5) also drove in
three runs, while Kelvin York and Matt Collins (3-for-5) each had a pair of RBIs as the
Warhawks belted out 14 hits.
Kyle Suire
followed his game-winning home run in the 10th inning in yesterday's
opener with a 3-for-5 performance on Saturday scoring a pair of runs.
Ryan Kirk
(1-0) picked up the win in his ULM
debut scattering seven hits through 5 2/3 innings allowing just four runs,
three earned. The junior college
transfer struck out four and walked just one.
Ben Soignier moved from shortstop to the mound with the
bases loaded and nobody out in the seventh inning and retired three
straight. He closed out the game picking
up his first save of the season and second of his career not allowing a hit
over the final three innings of the game.
The Warhawks jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first two
innings. Fontenot got things started
scoring Soignier and Jon Prevost with a double down the line in right. A.J. Siggers brought home Fontenot with a
sacrifice fly and Laird broke the game open with a triple off the wall in right
scoring both Collins and Ryan McMillan.
Fontenot drove home his third run of the game in the
Warhawks half of the second singling home Soignier, who reached on a single.
Siggers
saved the Warhawks at least one run in the bottom half of the fourth inning
with a leaping catch off the wall in right field and doubling off Brett
Hoeflich at second.
Laird extended
the ULM lead to
7-1 in the top of the fifth with an RBI single.
York
took the first pitch of his collegiate career off the wall in left field
driving home a pair of runs in the top of the six erasing two runs Nicholls
pushed across in the fifth increasing the Warhawk lead out to 9-3.
A run in
the sixth and two in the seventh pulled the Colonels within 9-6, but Collins
delivered the knockout blow in the Warhawks half of the eighth inning with a
single to left scoring Fontenot and Suire.
ULM chased Nicholls
State starter Justin
Breaux (0-1) after just 1 2/3 innings working the southpaw for six runs, two
earned, on five hits.
The teams
wrap up the three game series tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 p.m. The Warhawks will send senior transfer Josh
Lett to the hill while Nicholls
State counters with Ryan
Harding. The game can be heard live on
ULMAthletics.com.
ULM 11, Nicholls State 6 (Feb 23, 2008 at Thibodaux, La.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ULM................. 510 012 020 - 11 14 1 (2-0)
Nicholls State...... 001 021 200 - 6 10 4 (0-2)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: ULM - Kirk, Ryan; Fortenberry, D.J.(6); Soignier, Ben(7). Nicholls State -
Justin Breaux; Seth Webster(2); Nathan Quebedeaux(6); Lance Guidroz(8).
Win-Kirk, Ryan(1-0) Save-Soignier, Ben(1) Loss-Justin Breaux(0-1) T-2:47 A-724
Fortenberry faced 3 batters in the 7th.
