MONROE, La. – The ULM baseball team will wrap-up the regular season this weekend as the squad travels to Lafayette, La., for a three-game Sun Belt Conference series at Louisiana-Lafayette. The series will begin Thursday night at 6 p.m., followed by contests on Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (3 p.m.).
All three games between ULM and Louisiana-Lafayette will air KMLB 540 AM in Monroe as well as online (Nick White, pxp). Live stats as well as live video ($; via Ragin' Cajuns All-Access) will also be available; Friday's contest will air on ESPN 3.
First Pitch…
• ULM enters the final conference weekend one game behind Arkansas State in the Sun Belt Conference standings as the two teams, along with Georgia State, are battling for the eighth and final spot in the Sun Belt Tournament (San Marcos, Texas; May 25-29).
• ULM was scheduled to play at No. 13 Southern Miss on Tuesday evening, but the contest was canceled due to rain... It was the second attempt at playing in Hattiesburg, Miss., this season as the two teams were originally scheduled to play on February 23, but weather forced the game to move to May 17.
• There are a pair of connections as it relates to the Warhawks and the Ragin' Cajuns... Though they never played against each other, former ULM outfielder Dalton Herrington is the older brother of current UL Lafayette outfielder Derek Herrington... The other connection involves the gridiron and the diamond... Current ULM football assistant coach (wide receivers / recruiting coordinator) Tim Leger is the father of UL Lafayette pitcher Gunner Leger.
• Last weekend against Little Rock, ULM posted a 1-2 mark in the Sun Belt Conference series... the Warhawks won the series opener, 4-1, before dropping the final two games of the weekend, including a late rally that came up just short on Sunday (L, 6-7).
• In Friday's series opener, Keegan Curtis notched his third consecutive quality start as the sophomore tossed seven complete innings, allowing just two hits and one run on four walks and five strikeouts... Curtis, who threw 103 pitches in the contest, earned his second consecutive victory on the mound.
• Keller Bradford replaced Curtis to start the eighth and he tossed a scoreless frame as he allowed one hit and struck out one.
• Anthony Herrera closed the book on the Trojans as he tossed a scoreless ninth inning (one hit, one walk) to notch his 10th save of 2016... With his 10th save of the season, Herrera moved into a tie for first place in the single-season record books... Herrera is now tied with Michael Durham who notched 10 saves during the 2000 season.
• Anthony Herrera now has 16 career saves and he is in sole possession of second place as he trails only Mark Wisniewski who had 20 saves from 1982-85.
• Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third on Friday night, the Warhawks scored a trio of runs as they took a 3-1 lead and one they never relinquished in the 4-1 win... Josh Faciane drove in Tyler Cox with a RBI single up the middle to tie the game and later in the inning Jacob Stockton drove in Faciane and Nathan Pugh with a two-RBI double down the left field line... ULM's final run of the game came on a Spencer Hemphill sacrifice fly.
• Saturday's game marked the first time since March 24, 2013 that the Warhawks were shutout at home... Little Rock snapped the Warhawks' home scoring streak at 100 games.
• On Sunday, ULM found itself it a 6-0 hole after 5 1/2 innings of play, but the Warhawks clawed back into the game as they scored in four consecutive innings (three runs in fifth; one run in sixth; one run in seventh; one run in the eighth) to close the gap to one run (7-6) heading to the final inning of play... ULM got the tying run on base to lead off the ninth but couldn't even the score.
For updates on the baseball squad, be sure to follow the team on Twitter @ULM_BSB, Facebook (www.facebook.com/ULMBaseball) and Instagram (@ULM_BSB).
