MONROE, La.?South Alabama held off a furious ULM rally in
the ninth inning to defeat the Warhawks 11-9 Saturday afternoon at Warhawk
Field to clinch the Sun Belt Conference series.
Trailing 11-4 heading into the final frame, the Warhawks
plated five runs ? four with two outs ? and had the tying at the plate. The first four batters of the inning singled
for the Warhawks and an error on a grounder by Jon Prevost allowed the first
run of the frame to score.
Matt Collins followed with an RBI single through the
right side of the infield and Matt Laird snuck a double inside the left-field
line to close the gap to 11-7. Jordy Poche brought the tying run to the plate
with a two-run single back up the middle. Lance Baxter came out of the bullpen
to strikeout Nick Wade for the final out of the game and his second save of the
weekend.
The series finale on Sunday has been moved up to an 11
a.m. first pitch due to the threat of inclement weather in the Monroe area.
The first six batters reached in the second inning for
the Jaguars (23-23, 11-12 Sun Belt) including back-to-back doubles by David Doss and Jake Overstreet to
lead off the inning. Derek O'Reilly, Chris Davis, Zach Grichor and Doss all had
RBIs in the inning and another run scored on a balk. O'Reilly led South Alabama
going 4-for-5 on the day.
ULM (25-22, 12-14) opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of
the first sparked by a lead-off home run by Boomer Blanchard, his 11th
of the season. Following a walk and two singles to load the bases, Poche
singled through the right side of the infield to score two runs.
Blanchard finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored, Collins was
2-for-3 with a pair of walks and Poche finished 2-for-5 with four RBIs.
Drew Graham shut down South
Alabama over the final seven innings of the game scattering four hits and
striking out seven Jaguar batters. He was charged with two runs after Grichor
hit a two-out, three-run triple off Keith Christensen who relieved Graham
during the eighth.
Wade closed the gap to 7-4 with his seventh home run
of the season in the sixth inning.
Matt Jackson (4-3) picked up the win for South Alabama
allowing four runs on six hits over six innings of work. He struck out three
batters and walked six before handing the ball off to Greg Johnson in the
seventh.
Poche (2-5) couldn't get out of the second inning
allowing seven runs on six hits in 1.1 innings. ULM starters have thrown a
combined 2.1 innings allowing 16 runs on 13 hits in the opening two games of
the series.
The Warhawks have now dropped six straight games and have
fallen behind South Alabama to sixth place in the Sun Belt Conference
standings.
Sunday's game will be broadcast live on 540 AM in the
Monroe area and worldwide on the internet at ulmathletics.com. It will also be
Kids' Day as all children 12 and under will be admitted free and will have the
opportunity to run on the field with the Warhawks for the National Anthem.
