MONROE, La.?ULM scored two runs in the
bottom of the seventh inning to push past Florida Atlantic 3-2 Saturday afternoon
at Warhawk Field strengthening its grip on first place in the Sun Belt
standings.
The Warhawks improve to 16-8 overall and 9-2 in the Sun Belt
while Florida Atlantic falls to 16-8 and two games behind ULM on the conference
leaderboard at 6-3.
Matt Collins plated the winning run with a two-out single to
center field off of Owl reliever Jeff Beliveau in the bottom of the seventh
inning. The base hit came just two batters
after freshman shortstop Darren Sutton tied the game at 2-2 with a single to
right.
Sutton entered the game in the top half of the inning after ULM's every-day shortstop
Ben Soignier took over the pitching duties.
Soignier (1-1) earned his first victory of the season with 2 2/3 perfect
innings on the mound allowing just three hits, no walks and striking out
three. His performance on the mound
comes on the heels of a 3-for-3, two home run night in the Warhawks 7-6 victory
over FAU in Friday night's series opener.
Soignier worked himself out of a jam in the top of the
ninth. After the first two batters of
the inning reached on back-to-back singles, Soignier got Troy Bubley to
strikeout bunting a two-strike pitch foul.
He then got lead-off hitter William Block to hit into a first pitch
4-6-3 double play to end the game.
The win assures the Warhawks their fourth Sun Belt series
victory in as many tries and a win in the finale tomorrow afternoon at 12:00
p.m. would give them their second series sweep of the season.
Drew Graham started on the mound for the Warhawks allowing a
pair of unearned runs on five hits while fanning seven Owl batters. The junior right-hander had an 11.65 ERA over
his last six outings since tossing a two-hitter over 7 1/3 innings at Southern Mississippi on February 26.
The Owls took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth on a
fielder's choice RBI by Nick Arata after the inning was prolonged by a Warhawk
fielding error.
Dexter Fontenot tied the game in the bottom of the fifth
with his ninth sacrifice fly of the season.
He entered the week ranked eighth in the nation in the category.
Following a walk issued to Bubley in the top of the seventh,
Block doubled to left field and the ball was mishandled by Jon Prevost allowing
Bubley to come all the way from first giving the Owls a 2-1 lead.
Brett Cannon (0-1) took the loss for the Owls allowing two
runs on three hits in just two-thirds of an inning. Starter Mike Gipson lasted just 4 2/3 innings
allowing a run on three hits.
