Monroe, La. - An 8-run fourth inning was more than enough for ULM on Wednesday night, cruising to a 10-1 win over Jackson State at Warhawk Field.
The Warhawks (9-16 overall) won their second straight mid-week game with a mixture of the big inning plus a second straight solid night from the pitching staff.
"I thought we had some productive at bats throughout the lineup that just kind of kept it turning over a little bit," head coach Michael Federico said. "We've moved some guys around and kind of shuffled a little bit. We needed Bell to get going, and we need that bottom of the lineup to start doing some stuff as well."
ULM opened the scoring in the first inning when Trent Tingelstad walked and moved around to third base on a single by Chad Bell. Tingelstad scored when Jackson State (11-17) second baseman Tyler Culpepper dropped a fly ball in shallow right field for the 1-0 lead.
ULM doubled the lead in the third when Bell hit a solo home run to right-center field to push the lead to 2-0.
"Going into that at bat, Coach (Matt) Collins was saying 'see the ball up,'" Bell said. "Luckily I saw it up, got a changeup, put a good swing on it and thankfully kept carrying out of the ballpark."
The Warhawks then broke the game open in the fourth inning. Colin Gordon picked up his first career RBI on a single to score Ryan Humeniuk. Tingelstad connected for a sacrifice fly to plate Gordon, and then Bell smashed a two-run home run to the flag pole in right-center field for a 6-0 lead.
"Same thing, another changeup left up in the zone, put another good swing on it," Bell said.
The Warhawks weren't done in the fourth. A single and three straight walks brought home Andrew Beesley, and an error allowed Blake Buckman to score while keeping the bases loaded. Gordon then connected for his second single of the inning, plating two more runs to cap the eight-run inning.
"It was good to get some production at the bottom of the lineup and they turned it over to get Trent and to get Bell up there with some baserunners on," Federico said.
"The pitching staff did a good job of keeping the tempo up, letting us come in and keep our groove going on offense," Bell said. "One through nine contributed tonight. Most guys had a hit. Definitely big on our offense to be able to do that. Hopefully it can carry into this weekend against a good Georgia Southern team."
While the offense didn't score again after the fourth inning, the pitching staff was strong all night, starting with Conner Deeds.
"I thought Conner Deeds did a good job of getting us a good start, two double play balls in the first and second innings which kind of killed a little momentum for them," Federico said.
After Deeds opened with three shutout innings, Landon Longsworth followed with two scoreless innings, Jake Kaufman gave up a solo home run in an inning of work, Justin Barton struck out four batters over two scoreless innings, and Richard Hebert finished out the game with a scoreless ninth inning.
"Disappointed with the home run that Kaufman gave up, but at the same time, he at least pounded the strike zone," Federico said. "He didn't walk anybody. Even after he gave up the home run, he got the next guy out. He didn't get rattled or anything like that. We limited our walks. We've really got to get our guys to solidify their roles. We've got to be strong at the back end of the bullpen. We kind of did that yesterday, and today we did it as well. It's fun to hang all those zeroes up there, for sure."
Longsworth picked up the win on the mound. Bell had three hits with three RBIs to pace the offense, while Tingelstad extended his hitting streak to a season-high eight games with two hits and an RBI. Gordon had two hits and three RBIs while Humeniuk also had two hits and an RBI.
The Warhawks host Georgia Southern for a three-game series starting on Friday with first pitch at 6 p.m. For tickets, call (318) 342-HAWK or visit ULMWarhawks.com. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
