MONROE, La. –ULM baseball starting pitcher Keegan Curtis struck out six batters over 127 pitches while the offense posted 14 hits on the way to helping the Warhawks to a 7-1 Sunday victory over Little Rock as ULM took two of three in the Sun Belt series.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: ULM 7, Little Rock 1
LOCATION: Warhawk Field / Monroe, Louisiana
RECORDS: ULM (8-17, 3-3 SBC)
Little Rock (9-15, 2-4 SBC)
TURNING POINT
-Curtis and the Warhawks stranded 12 Little Rock baserunners throughout the afternoon, including Curtis working out of a jam and leaving the bases loaded in the first inning and getting out of the fourth frame with two runners left on. Curtis and reliever Chase Cater hung two Trojan runners on the base paths in the seventh inning before Cater got a big double play to help strand two runners in Little Rock's last big chance in the eighth.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-A scoreless game into the fourth after Curtis danced around jams in the first three frames, Little Rock got on the board in the top of the fourth on a bases loaded RBI fielder's choice ground ball but would get nothing else after Curtis was able to work himself out of the inning again.
-ULM took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on a pair of RBI singles, by Tyler Cox and Spencer Hemphill, to give Curtis enough offense before the Warhawks added four runs in the sixth, highlighted by Anthony Herrera's three-run triple down into the left field corner.
-The Warhawks final run of the afternoon came in the bottom of the eighth when Cade Harper collected a two-out double and advanced to third on a wild pitch before scoring on Nate Reynolds' RBI single.
-Stone, Hemphill and Chad Bell all finished with three hits, including a double apiece, to pace the ULM offense, while Herrera added two hits.
-Curtis earned his first victory of the season while throwing a career-high 127 pitches over 6 2/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits and five walks along while his six strikeouts tied a career-best.
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
-Curtis had previously thrown over 100 pitches in three other games, most recently against UT Arlington on April 4, 2015 (107 pitches), while he has recorded six strikeouts on two other occasions (at Southeastern Louisiana (3/24/15) and against Georgia Southern (5/1/16)).
-With the series victory over Little Rock, ULM has now opened its home Sun Belt Conference schedule with series wins in each of the last two seasons after the Warhawks took two of three games from Appalachian State to begin SBC home play last March.
-With two weeks of Sun Belt play in the books, ULM is one of four teams to sit with a 3-3 SBC record, along with Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern and UL Lafayette. South Alabama and Texas State are each 5-1 after two weekends of conference play.
UP NEXT
-The Warhawks hit the road for their next four games, beginning with a short trip down I-20 to take on Louisiana Tech on Tuesday night with a 6:00 p.m. first pitch. ULM then travels to Georgia Southern next weekend to continue Sun Belt Conference play with a three-game series.
