OMAHA, Neb.?On a bittersweet
night at historic Rosenblatt Stadium, the ULM
baseball team won the Sun Belt Conference championship, but dropped an 8-3
decision to the Creighton Bluejays.
By virtue
of Louisiana-Lafayette's 11-8 victory over New Orleans tonight, the Warhawks (32-22,
20-10 Sun Belt) are the regular season Sun Belt championships despite being
picked to finish eighth by the league coaches before the season.
Under the
direction of second-year head coach Jeff Schexnaider, the ULM program has gone from a 0-15 start two
seasons ago to the champions of one of the best baseball conferences in the
nation. The championship is the first
since 2002 when ULM
won the Southland Conference title.
“I am proud
of the guys because of how hard they have worked all year,” Schexnaider said. “It
is special to be the ones to win the first conference championship. A lot of praise goes to the guys from last
year's team who laid the groundwork in our first season in the Sun Belt.”
The
Warhawks recorded eight base hits on the night giving them 661 on the season
which is a new single-season school record.
The Warhawks have already set the single-season home runs, RBI and total
bases record and need just two doubles and 23 runs to set those single-season
records.
Creighton
scored four runs over the final two innings of the game making the margin of
victory greater than how close the game actually was.
The Warhawks
pulled within 5-3 in the bottom of the eighth inning on Kyle Suire's second RBI
groundout of the game. The next batter,
Dexter Fontenot, crushed a ball to deep left-center field that would have been
a home run in most parks and tied the game, but in the larger Rosenblatt
Stadium it was caught on the warning track.
The
Warhawks jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first after Ben Soignier
tripled to right field and Suire brought him home with a grounder to first.
Creighton
quickly took the lead in its half of the opening frame on a two-run homer to
left field by Darin Ruf.
After Matt
Collins tied the game with a single to right in the top of the fourth, Nick
Nordgren capped a two-out rally in the bottom half of the inning giving the
Bluejays a 4-2 lead with a two-run double.
Mike Nihsen
(5-1) picked up the win for the Bluejays allowing two runs on six hits in six
innings, while Jared Jennings (4-4) suffered the loss allowing five runs on
nine hits in 6.2 innings.
The teams
wrap up the three-game series tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 at the Creighton
Sports Complex.
The Warhawks will play Middle Tennessee in the opening round of the Sun Belt Tournament on Wednesday. Game times will be set later this weekend as Louisiana-Lafayette can choose their opening game starting time as the host of the tournament. ULM swept Middle Tennessee back on April 18-20 winning by a combined score of 46-22.
