TROY, Ala.?Troy completed a
three-game
Sun Belt Conference sweep of ULM with an 8-4 victory over the
Warhawks
Sunday afternoon at Riddle-Pace Field.
The Trojans (30-19, 17-8 Sun
Belt) jumped out to a 7-0 lead after the
first five innings only to see the Warhawks hit a pair of two-run home runs in
the sixth and seventh innings to make the game interesting.
Chad Watson led off the Trojans'
half of the first inning with a single and would have been retired on a routine
6-4-3 double play off the bat of Charley Williams, but Watson was running on
the play and the Warhawks were only able to get Williams out on the play.
Two batters later Ryan
Ditthardt lined a double to right-center field to score two runs and Miles
Hoyle followed one out later with a single to left for the third run of the inning.
Williams extended the lead out
to 4-0 with a two-out single back up the middle to score Adam Bryant. One swing
later, Trevor Tyre made it a 6-0 game with a towering home run to left field. Steven
Felix tacked on another run with an RBI double to right in the fifth.
Ryan McMillan put the Warhawks
on the board with his fourth home run of the season ? a two-run shot ? in the
top of the sixth inning. Boomer Blanchard blasted his 12th homer of
the season in the seventh to pull ULM within three, 7-4.
Michael Precise gave the
Trojans a little breathing room with an RBI single against a drawn in infield in
the seventh after Brett Henry led off the inning with a double.
With the loss, the Warhawks (26-24,
12-17) dropped 10 of their final 11 Sun Belt games and will now have to watch the conference
scoreboard next weekend to see if they will qualify for the league tournament.
Jason Walls (4-4) picked up
the win going six innings allowing just the two-run homer to McMillan. He
scattered four hits, struck out eight ULM batters and walked three.
Don Williams (5-2) took the
loss for ULM allowing seven runs on eight hits over 4.1 innings.
The Warhawks wrap up the
regular season next weekend with a three-game series against Houston Baptist
beginning Friday at 7 p.m. ULM will honor its eight seniors prior to Saturday's
game which has been moved to 6 p.m.
