MONROE, La. – ULM held a 3-0 lead after three complete innings and held on for a 4-3 win over visiting South Alabama on Sunday afternoon at Warhawk Field. The victory was head coach Bruce Peddie's 400th career victory.
In the home half of the first inning, Kodie Tidwell belted his first homer of the season to right field to give ULM a 1-0 lead. The Warhawks nearly pushed the lead to 2-0, but Justin Stawychny was robbed of a homer by Cole Billingsley as the Jaguar center fielder made a leaping grab at the wall in left center to end the first inning.
In the bottom of the third, the Warhawks tacked on a pair of runs to increase their lead to 3-0. Dalton Todd tallied a one-out double down the left field line and Tidwell drew a two out walk to give ULM a pair on with two outs. Keelin Rasch followed with a two-RBI double to left center to push the Warhawk advantage to three runs.
South Alabama threatened in the top of the fourth as Cole Billingsley was able to reach third with one out, but starter Trey Setzer got a strikeout and a groundout to keep the Jaguars off of the scoreboard.
An inning later the Jaguars were able to breakthrough and trim the Warhawk lead to two runs (3-1) as Garrett DeGallier scored from second on a two-out RBI single up the middle by Ryan Raspino.
In the bottom of the fifth the Warhawks pushed the lead back to three runs as Stawychny doubled in shallow center field as three Jaguars were unable to track down the ball. The senior's two-out hit allowed Anthony Herrera to score from second to give ULM a 4-1 advantage.
South Alabama answered right back with one run of its own as Matt Bolger scored on Adam Ballew's sacrifice fly to center field. Ballew's RBI brought the Jaguars to within two runs at 4-2 and in the top of the eighth, South Alabama closed the gap to one run (4-3) as Bud Collura scored on a throwing error by Warhawk catcher Spencer Hemphill.
ULM limited South Alabama to one hit in the ninth as the homestanding Warhawks claimed a 4-3 win. Setzer improved to 4-0 on the season as he surrendered three runs (two earned) on eight hits and one walk with four punchouts in a career-best 7.1 innings pitched. Herrera earned his second save of the season after allowing just one hit with two strikeouts in the final 1.2 innings.
Todd led ULM with two hits and one run scored, while Tidwell tallied two runs and Rasch drove in a pair.
ULM will return to the diamond on Wednesday night as it travels to Louisiana Tech for a 6 p.m. contest. For updates throughout the season on the baseball squad, be sure to follow the team on Twitter
@ULM_BSB and Facebook (
www.facebook.com/ULMBaseball).
