No. 16 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers (13-4-1) at ULM Warhawks (7-9)
Warhawk Field | Monroe, La.
6 p.m. Friday | 2 p.m. Saturday | 11 a.m. Sunday
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Monroe, La. - The ULM baseball team enters Sun Belt Conference play this weekend when they host No. 16 Coastal Carolina at Warhawk Field. Friday's game begins at 6 p.m., while Saturday's game is slated for 2 p.m. and Sunday's series finale has first pitch at 11 a.m.
In Friday's game, Coastal Carolina plans to pitch sophomore right-hander Zach McCambley (2-0, 3.26 ERA) against ULM's senior right-hander
Jacob Barton (1-2, 4.74). On Saturday, Coastal's junior left-hander Austin Kitchen (3-0, 2.84) will go against ULM senior
Trey Jeans (0-2, 3.68). Sunday's series finale will feature Coastal Carolina freshman lefty Garrett McDaniels (0-0, 5.40) against Warhawk junior righty
Kayleb Sanderson (2-1, 5.29).
Setting the Scene
ULM opens Sun Belt Conference play this weekend by hosting Coastal Carolina. The Warhawks are 7-9 on the season after picking up a 10-6 win over Southern on Tuesday afternoon at Warhawk Field.
The two teams will play a three-game series, beginning at 6 p.m. Friday and continuing at 2 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday. The two programs never met on the diamond prior to Coastal Carolina joining the Sun Belt Conference before the 2017 season. Friday's game is the seventh all-time meeting between the two schools, with Coastal posting a pair of weekend sweeps over the last two years to lead the series 6-0.
ULM head coach
Michael Federico is in his second season with the Warhawks. He led the team to an 11-win improvement in his first season, as the Warhawks posted a 23-31 record in 2018.
ULM has split its four games on the current seven-game home stand. The Warhawks dropped two out of three games to McNeese State last weekend, losing 13-12 on Friday, winning 10-5 in game two which was split between Saturday and Sunday, and dropping the series finale 10-2 on Sunday. The Warhawks bounced back with a 10-6 victory over Southern on Tuesday to win their first mid-week game of the season.
Coastal Carolina head coach Gary Gilmore is in his 24th season at Coastal Carolina and his 30th season overall as a head coach. Gilmore led his alma mater to the 2016 National Championship. He is seven wins shy of his 1,200th career win. Gilmore is looking to become just the 27th NCAA coach to record 1,200 career wins.
Coastal is wrapping up a 12-day road swing with its trip to Monroe. The Chanticleers sit at 13-3-1 on the year after going 1-1-1 in a trip to Seattle last weekend, with a win over Washington and a tie vs. No. 1 Oregon State.
Leading Off
Through Wednesday's games, ULM ranks 9th in the Sun Belt Conference as a team in batting average at .253. ULM has 128 hits, 19 doubles, three triples and nine home runs with 88 runs scored. The Warhawks have also compiled 122 strikeouts to 83 walks. On the mound, ULM ranks last in the SBC in team ERA at 6.15. The Warhawks have given up 112 runs, 93 earned, on 149 hits with 147 strikeouts and 77 walks.
ULM picked up its first mid-week win of the season on Tuesday with a 10-6 victory over Southern. ULM built a 5-1 lead in the third inning before Southern exploded for five run in the top of the fourth inning to claim a 6-5 lead. The Warhawks then shut the Jaguars down, giving up just one hit over the final five innings, while the offense scored at least one run in each of its last four trips to the plate.
Ty Barnes gave up one run over three innings of relief, while
Kolton Childress tossed three shut out innings to pick up his first save of the season.
The Warhawks lost Friday night's series opener against McNeese State 13-12. The Warhawks rallied from a 10-run deficit with nine outs left, only to fall short when an appeal at home plate negated a run off a grand slam hit by
Chad Bell to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.
ULM bounced back with a 10-5 win on in game two against the Cowboys, using a five-run seventh inning over two days to pull away. The game featured two rain delays and two fog delays before being suspended in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Warhawks dropped the series finale to McNeese on Sunday 10-2. McNeese scored three runs in the top of the first inning, but put the game away with a five-run eighth inning.
