MONROE, La.-Josh
Gill was
2-for-3 with three RBIs and James Jones pitched eight solid innings to
lead ULM
to a 6-2 victory over New Orleans Friday night at Warhawk Field in the
Sun Belt
Conference series opener. The Warhawks have now won eight straight games
over
New Orleans dating back to 2007.
Saturday's game has
been moved
up to a 1 p.m. first pitch due to the forecast of rain in the Monroe
area later
in the evening.
The Warhawks (8-9,
2-2 Sun
Belt) got all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first
scoring three
times off UNO starter John Pivich. A fielding error, a hit by pitch and a
walk
loaded the bases with two outs for Gill who singled to left to plate
Nick Wade
and Caleb Clowers. Two batters later Jarrett Hammond drew a bases loaded
walk
for the final run of the inning.
Jones (2-1)
finished with a
career-high 10 strikeouts and allowed just two runs on five hits. Over
his last
three starts, Jones has logged 25 innings, struck out 24 batters and
allowed
just five runs on 14 hits.
After a scoreless
second, Josh
Chappell led off the third inning reaching on an error by the Privateers
and
came around to score on a Gill double to left. Gill moved to third on a
passed
ball and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Shane Ardoin.
Edwards plated the
Warhawks' final
run of the game in the fourth on a grounder to short with the infield
pulled
in. Wade scored on the play after he singled to center field with one
out, moved
to second on a wild pitch and then to third on UNO's third error of the
night.
The Privateers
(4-11, 0-4) finally broke
through against Jones for two runs in the sixth and could have had more
had it
not been for Wade. With runners on second and third, the senior third
baseman snared
a screaming line drive off the bat of Rodarrick Jones that was would
have
landed down the left-field line for extra bases.
Pivich (0-1) was
saddled with
the hard-luck loss allowing just one earned run (six total runs) on
three hits.
His vice on the night was eight walks and a hit batter over his seven innings
of work.
Junior right-hander
Drew
Granier (2-0, 4.63 ERA) will get the start for the Warhawks opposite
junior
right-hander Jim McGonigle (1-0, 2.30) for New Orleans in game two on
Saturday.
The game will be
broadcast live on the Warhawk Radio Network with local
coverage on 540 AM and worldwide coverage on ulmwarhawks.com. Fans can
also
watch the game live in Warhawks All*Access by logging onto
ulmwarhawks.com -
free live stats will also be available online.
