Hattiesburg, Miss. – After ULM rallied for the lead in the top of the eighth inning, Southern Miss answered with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to regain the lead and held on for the 5-4 win Tuesday night at Pete Taylor Park.
"I'm proud of our team," coach Michael Federico said. "Even though we lost, that's the kind of baseball I know we're capable of playing. We made no errors, they out-hit us by one and the disappointing thing again goes back to the pitching side of it. I know I keep bringing it up, but it's the walks. It just allows that lineup for them to get extra players up there."
The Warhawks trailed 3-1 entering the eighth inning, and hadn't picked up a hit since the third inning before Masen Prososki led off the inning with a single on a ground ball through the middle of the infield. Colin Gordon followed with an infield single to put runners on first and second with nobody out. After Ryan Humeniuk struck out, Trent Tingelstad hit a double down the right field line, plating Prososki and Gordon to tie the game at 3. Chad Bell followed with an RBI single through the left side of the drawn-in infield to give the Warhawks a 4-3 lead.
"You had Prososki in the game to have a little bit of speed, and he gave us some tremendous at-bats," Federico said. "He's been doing it for us pretty much all year. It was nice to see him kind of grind some things out. Gordon has been struggling, but he's been playing solid defensively. We just have to plug away with that and hopefully he can keep figuring out these at-bats. That was a really good at-bat that he had and ended up scoring a run later on there, too, which was huge. It was nice to see some productivity out of the bottom of the lineup."
However, Southern Miss rallied in the bottom of the eighth. A one-out walk to Matthew Guidry started the Golden Eagle rally. Hunter Slater followed with a single to right, and Brant Blaylock doubled to drive home Guidry to tie the game. After an intentional walk to All-American Matt Wallner, Cole Donaldson hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Slater to give Southern Miss the 5-4 lead.
J.C. Keys gave up a two-out single to Brendan Jordan, but struck out three Warhawks to end the game in the ninth inning and pick up the win.
The Warhawks had a strong start to the game when Tingelstad hit his second home run of the year, a solo shot to right, to put the Warhawks up 1-0 in the first inning. Tingelstad finished with three hits, his third straight multi-hit game, and three RBIs. Federico says Tingelstad has some help around him in the lineup.
"Humeniuk has been having some quality at-bats," Federico said. "You've got Chad Bell behind you. We've been struggling at the bottom of the lineup, and opposing teams have to kind of pick who they're going to go to. Trent does a tremendous job of taking pitches and walks and he's leading us in walks and batting average as well. When you can do that, and you're that disciplined at the plate, it allows you to be able to barrel baseballs up, because you're going to take your walks, but you're also going to put your bat on the ball and hit it hard. He does a great job of that. He gave us a spark there at the beginning, get off to a 1-0 start. We need Trent. We need a couple other guys to just keep getting at-bats and keep learning how the flow of the game goes."
Southern Miss tied the game in the third when Wallner doubled to right, scoring Slater. A bases loaded walk to Bryant Bowen in the fifth inning forced home Slater to put USM up 2-1. The Golden Eagles tacked on a run to the lead in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Guidry to score Will McGillis to lead 3-1.
Richard Hebert took the loss for ULM, giving up two runs on two hits with a walk in one-third of an inning. Cole Martin took a no-decision in his fourth mid-week start, throwing 4.1 innings with two runs on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
"It was his best start," Federico said. "There were a couple times where he and I probably weren't on the same page in some moments. He's got to understand that it's a different game at this level. He's such a competitor. I love that about him. I'd rather be able to pull the reigns back on somebody than light a fire under him."
Federico said playing at Pete Taylor Park is another learning experience for his club.
"This is what Coastal Carolina's like with their fan support and the facilities and the commitment that they've made here," Federico said. "That's the kind of environment you want to be in. That's why we played LSU and we went to Pensacola for a tournament. This is what it's going to be like, and this is what I'm hoping our guys can put ourselves in at the end of the year. I want to be playing our best baseball in May, and today was definitely a step forward. It's going to help us."
The Warhawks continue the five-game road trip this weekend at Texas State, opening the series on Friday at 6 p.m. Visit ULMWarhawks.com for links to live video, audio and stats.
