MONROE, La.- Jacob
Lee pitched
eight scoreless frames and Arkansas State scored in the final five
innings of
the game to defeat ULM 8-1 at Warhawk Field on Sunday in the finale of
the Sun
Belt Conference series.
Lee (5-2), who is
the reigning
Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Week, scattered six hits over his
eight
innings of work. He struck out seven and walked one before leaving the
game in
the ninth after allowing a leadoff single to Judd Edwards -- Edwards would come around to score to break up Lee's shutout bid.
Murray Watts led
the Red
Wolves (21-11, 11-4) with four hits in five at-bats, while Logan Uxa had
a pair
of hits and Ryan Emery hit a home run and drove home three runs.
Boomer Blanchard
and Edwards
had a pair of hits for the Warhawks (12-20, 3-9), while Caleb Clowers,
Nick
Wade, Kelvin York and Casey Auttonberry each had one base knock.
Arkansas State, who
moved into
second place in the Sun Belt standings with the victory, plated its
first two
runs on sacrifice flies in the third and fifth innings by Giovanni
Garcia and
Michael Faulkner, respectively.
Clowers appeared to
have tied
the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the third as he crushed a ball to right
field,
but Todd Baumgartner reached above the wall to make a home-run saving
catch.
The Arkansas State
lead grew
to 3-0 in the sixth as an unearned run crossed the plate when
Baumgartner
scored on a groundout to short after he reached on an error earlier in
the
inning. Garcia drove home his second run of the game with a bloop single
to
right field in the seventh. Emery's homer came following a leadoff
single by
Watts in the top of the eighth inning. The Red Wolves tacked on two more
in the top of the ninth.
The Warhawks broke
through in
the bottom of the ninth inning on a pinch hit single by York to allow
Edwards
to score from third. Auttonberry kept the inning alive with a two-out
single to
right-center field after he came in as a pinch hitter.
Jordy Poche (2-3)
suffered the
hard-luck loss for the Warhawks after he allowed four runs - three
earned - in 6
2/3 innings of work. He struck out three and all eight hits he allowed
were
singles.
The Warhawks play
at Grambling
State on Tuesday night before resuming conference play at South Alabama
over
the weekend.
