Monroe, La. - Three home runs, one by Chad Bell and two from Trent Tingelstad, pushed ULM past Northwestern State 8-4 Wednesday night at Warhawk Field.
Bell and Tingelstad, both left-handed hitters, went opposite field for their combined three home runs, knocking them over the left field fence.
Every time Northwestern State (19-12) scored on the night, ULM (15-18) answered. ULM trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the third inning when Bell hit his two-run blast to right, clearing the upper left corner of the scoreboard, to give ULM a 3-2 lead. The Warhawks would never trail again after Bell's eighth homer of the season.
It was still 3-2 in the seventh inning when Tingelstad came through with his first homer, sending a towering shot that seemed to get a push from the southeast wind over the left field fence.
"Joey Jordan, he had a good at bat," Tingelstad said. "He saw five pitches. He didn't look like he was coming with anything off-speed, so I just tried to sit that first pitch and got the good part of the barrel and it went out."
Blake Buckman added an RBI double with two outs in the seventh inning, driving home Andrew Beesley to push the lead to 5-2.
After NSU scored two runs in the top of the eighth, ULM took advantage of an NSU mistake. A dropped third strike with two outs in the inning allowed Braedon Barrett to reach base. After Jordan came through with an infield single, Tingelstad stepped to the dish and hit a slicing three-run homer that just cleared the fence in the left field corner to push the lead back to four at 8-4.
"We try to talk about the sixth, seventh and eighth a lot," said head coach Michael Federico. "Our guys are really buying into that and accepting the responsibility that that's where a lot of games are won and lost."
On the mound, Dylan Marsh made his first start of the season, giving up two runs on six hits over 3 innings.
"It's important when you give up a run, not to give up the big inning," Federico said. "That's stuff that we struggled with early on. To damage control and just give up the one, that's huge. That's part of the game. You're going to give up runs. Marsh did a good job of kind of simplifying some things."
Conner Deeds tossed 3 scoreless innings with a hit and a strikeout to pick up the win, while Miles Dunn and Landon Longsworth tossed a perfect inning each, with Longsworth picking up a strikeout.
"We just know that, no matter who we throw out there, we have trust that this guy is going to get it done," Longsworth said. "We also have faith in our bullpen if we go out there and you struggle, we know the next guy coming in after us is going to get the job done."
Jerry Maddox took the loss for NSU, throwing 6 innings with three runs on five hits, two walks and five strikeouts.
"Maddox is a good arm," Federico said. "That's not an arm you see a lot on midweek, especially in programs like ours. That's an elite arm. We did a good job of getting to him. I was proud of our guys."
The Warhawks have now won four straight games and eight of their last nine overall.
"It's just going back to trusting everybody in the lineup," Tingelstad said. "People are doing their job to get things done and get wins. That's what we need to do throughout the season, the rest of the season."
The Warhawks go back on the road in the Sun Belt Conference this weekend, visiting Appalachian State for a three-game series starting at 5 p.m. Friday. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
