MONROE, La.-ULM
belted out five
extra-base hits to give head coach Jeff Schexnaider his 100th
career
coaching victory as the Warhawks defeated Mississippi Valley State 8-4
Sunday
afternoon at Warhawk Field to complete the three-game sweep.
Eight different
Warhawks (5-4)
tallied a hit on the day as ULM had 12 as a team. Caleb
Clowers, Nick Wade, Judd Edwards and Josh Gill paced the offensive attack with two hits each. Wade drove in four runs,
while
Laird and Josh Chappell each had a pair of RBIs.
Jordy Poche (1-0)
gave the
Warhawks their third straight solid starting pitching performance as he
scattered
seven hits over seven innings. He struck out six batters, walked just
one and
allowed four earned runs.
Wil Browning
entered with the
bases loaded and two outs in the eighth and struck out Chris Norman to
end the
threat. He then worked a scoreless ninth inning, including two
strikeouts, to
pick up his third save of the season.
For the weekend
series, the
Warhawk pitching staff issued just seven walks and the defense did not
commit a
single error. At the plate, Matt Laird finished the weekend 7-for-14 with
five RBIs,
Gill was 3-for-6, while Perry Smith and Chappell were both 4-for-11.
The Warhawks scored
all of
their runs in the opening three innings as they charged out to an 8-1
lead and
chased MVSU starter Britt Goodman after just two innings of work.
Wade picked up
three of his
career-high-tying four RBIs with one swing of the bat in the bottom of
the
first inning. Blanchard led off the frame by drawing a six-pitch walk
and
Clowers followed with a single to left before Wade hammered his second
home run
of the of the season down the line in left. Later in the inning, Smith
scored on
a grounder by Chappell.
After the Delta
Devils scored
in the top of the second, the Warhawks answered with three in the bottom
of the
frame. Wade singled home Gill, who led off the inning with a single, and
Laird delivered
a two-run double in the gap in left-center.
Chappell led off
the ULM half
of the third inning with a towering home run to left field. It was his
first
career home run to snap a string of 31 games and 83 at-bats without a
long
ball.
MVSU (2-10) added a
single run
in the fourth after Curtis Ford led off the inning with a triple and
scored on
a ground out by Paul Olson. The Delta Devils plated two more in the
fifth to close
the gap to 8-4 on a double by Kylie Ming and single by Jerry Hildreth.
Goodman (0-2) was saddled with
the loss for the Delta Devils (2-10) after allowing eight runs on nine
hits.
The Warhawks step
out of
conference for a pair of mid-week games before opening Sun Belt play
next
weekend. ULM travels to Baton Rouge, La., to take on No. 1 LSU on
Tuesday night
before returning to Warhawk Field on Wednesday to play host to Memphis.
