Monroe, La. – Kayleb Sanderson allowed just one run over seven innings, as ULM struck for three runs with two outs in the sixth inning to defeat SIU Edwardsville 4-1 Monday afternoon at Warhawk Field. The victory gave ULM (3-3) a 2-1 series win over the Cougars (1-5).
"I thought our guys were pretty resilient weathering some storms," head coach Michael Federico said. "We had some opportunities to get some runs early that we didn't take advantage of. Kind of grinded some things out and got to them in the sixth inning."
With the bases empty and two outs in the inning, SIUE starter David Llorens ran into trouble. The ULM offense took advantage of a walk by Carson Klepzig. Colin Gordon followed with a single to left before Nathan Miranda doubled to center, sending Klepzig home for the 2-1 lead. Gordon scored on a wild pitch, and Miranda came home on a fielding error on SIUE first baseman Justin Perkins for the 4-1 advantage.
Federico said two-out situational hitting is stressed by his coaching staff.
"It's something that Coach (Matt) Collins and Coach (Jake) Carlson talk to our guys about a lot," Federico said. "Just because you have two outs, you can still find a way to put a productive inning in there. Sometimes it may be building the pitch count for the guy that's out there, and maybe getting a bullpen arm in there. Or it's getting a two-out hit. That's really what we've got to do a good job of. We have a lot of barrel control guys that can do that, and come in and do that stuff throughout the course of a year."
Sanderson followed up the three-run rally by sitting the Cougars down in order in the top of the seventh, capped on his seventh strikeout of the afternoon. Sanderson allowed just a single run in the fifth inning on four hits with one walk.
"I think he did a great job of locating his fastball, a couple changeups, got a double play ball on one of his changeups," Federico said. "He kind of got some guys in between pitches. When he needed to spin it, he spun it and got some strikeouts."
Cole Gray and Brock Figueroa tossed an inning each to close out the game, with Figueroa picking up his first save as a Warhawk.
"I felt like our bullpen did a great job coming in there late to hang those zeroes at the end," Federico said.
ULM took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Ryan Humeniuk reached on a leadoff walk and came around to score on Cameron Horton's RBI groundout. SIUE answered in the fifth with an RBI single by Jack Rigoni, scoring Peyton Cordova-Smith.
Gordon had the only multi-hit game for ULM, going 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored. A seventh inning lead-off single allowed Chad Bell to extend his career-best 11-game hitting streak.
The Warhawks will play their fourth game in three days on Tuesday with their first mid-week game of the season, as they visit Northwestern State in Natchitoches. First pitch is at 6 p.m. Links to live audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
