SAN MARCOS, Texas – Sophomore Vanessa Garcia provided late offense for ULM (30-21), but No. 23 South Alabama (36-10) held on in the night cap of Thursday's Sun Belt Championship Tournament lineup at Bobcat Softball Stadium.
The Warhawks will face five-seed Georgia State on Friday, May 8 at 10 a.m. in an elimination game. Due to the threat of inclement weather in the area, Friday's SBC Tournament schedule has been adjusted with all games moved up by one hour.
"I'm disappointed in the outcome, but they are a very good team," said head coach Corey Lyon. "We knew going into it that offensively they are the type of team that capitalized on your mistakes. We made three mistakes, and that was the difference in the game."
Garcia accounted for the all of the Warhawk runs as she went 1-for-4 with a two-RBI home run in the sixth inning. Sophomore Rochelle Roberts and junior Amye Barre picked recorded lone hits on the night.
ULM drew seven walks off South Alabama's Farish Beard with senior Alexis Cacioppo accounting for three of the seven walks, but the Jaguar defense held on to leave eight Warhawks on the bases.
"We had a lot of poortunites to make things happen offensively," said Lyon. "We just didn't get hits. It's just one of those things, and the good part of it is we get a chance to play tomorrow."
Sophomore Melanie Coyne made the start for the Warhawks going four innings while allowing four runs off four hits with only one run being earned. Coyne issued one walk in the start.
Freshman Paige Porter made her first appearance in the SBC Tournament as she went two innings of relief work. Porter allowed two runs off two hits and walk three batters.
Coyne was tagged with the loss to move to 13-14 on the season. Beard picked up the win for South Alabama and moves to 10-4 on the season.
"We're going to go home, get rid of this one and come back tomorrow morning ready to go," said Lyon.
After retiring the first four South Alabama batters, the Jaguars struck first with a home run to right center field to take a 0-1 lead through two innings.
The Jaguars pushed three unearned runs across in the bottom of the fourth and added two runs off a bases-loaded double in the bottom of fifth to extend the lead to 0-6 through five innings.
Cacioppo led off the sixth inning by drawing a walk with Garcia following with a towering home to left centerfield to cut the South Alabama lead to 2-6.
For the latest on ULM softball, visit ULMWarhawks.com and follow the team on Twitter (@ULM_Softball) and Facebook (facebook.com/ULMSoftball).
