LITTLE ROCK, Ark.?Jon Prevost
and Ben Soignier hit home runs and Justin Anderson went seven strong innings on
the mound as ULM clinched its second straight Sun Belt road series with a 9-3
victory over UALR Saturday evening at Gary Hogan Field ? the Warhawks won the
opener 24-5 Friday night.
It took the Warhawks (18-11, 8-6 Sun Belt) a couple
of innings to figure out UALR starter Jake Sullivan as he retired the first
eight batters he faced. Perry Smith broke through first with a single back up
the middle and Boomer Blanchard followed with a well executed bunt single in
the bottom of the third inning.
Prevost and Soignier, the
Warhawks top two RBI producers, followed with back-to-back RBI singles to give
the Warhawks a 2-1 lead. With Prevost on third and Soignier on first, Soignier
stole second and Prevost came home to score as the Trojans threw to second on
the play.
Anderson (5-1), who entered
the week ranked 33rd in the nation in wins, allowed just three runs
on six hits and struck out five Trojan batters as he worked a career-high seven
innings.
Soignier paced the
Warhawks'
13-hit attack going 3-for-5 on the night. Prevost, Matt Laird, Nick
Wade and
Smith all added two hits as ULM has now won eight of its last nine
games overall and five of its last six Sun Belt Conference games.
Jordy Poche extended the
Warhawk lead out to 4-1 with an RBI single to left field in the top of the
fourth inning scoring Wade, who singled, stole second and moved to third on a
wild pitch.
Prevost blasted his ninth home
run of the season, eighth in the past 13 games, in the fifth inning pushing the
ULM lead out to 5-1. Prevost now has 33 RBIs on the season through the first 29
games ? in 54 games last season he had 23 RBIs.
Smith pushed the lead out to
7-1 with a two-RBI single in the sixth. Soignier scored his first run of the
night on ULM's second successful attempt and the first-third steal play in the
seventh inning.
Soignier broke out of a
14-game homerless slump with his towering solo blast in the ninth inning.
UALR jumped out to a 1-0 lead
in the bottom of the second on an RBI groundout Daniel Guffey after the first
two batters of the inning reached being hit by a pitch and drawing a
walk.
The Trojans (7-20, 3-11) made
the score a little more respectable with a pair of runs on Nate Brown's second
double of the game in the eighth inning.
Sullivan (3-3) took the loss
for UALR allowing seven runs on 10 hits over six innings of work. Matt Apfel and Brown led the Trojans with a pair of hits.
The Warhawks and Trojans wrap
up the series tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. ULM will send Poche (1-1, 4.94 ERA)
to the mound, while UALR will counter with Anthony Pryor (0-3, 11.28). The game
can be heard live on 1680 AM in the Monroe area and worldwide on the internet
at ulmathletics.com.
