Monroe, La. – On Tuesday night, ULM head coach Michael Federico was disappointed his team let a close game get away from them vs. No. 21 Louisiana Tech.
On Friday night, Federico's club came through in another close game.
The Warhawks took the lead in the bottom of the first inning and never relinquished it, adding a pair of insurance runs in the eighth inning to hold off Little Rock 5-2 Friday night at Warhawk Field.
"As a coach, these are the games you really enjoy to watch, because there's strategy, you're thinking about execution, we had a couple of guys we were thinking about pinch hitting in certain situations," Federico said. "We had Cole Gray and Justin Barton kind of going (in the bullpen). It's fun to have that match-up stuff. It's one thing when you can bust through and have that success. We did a lot of things right by expanding the lead. It was a quality win by the entire team."
It goes back to Tuesday's 5-0 loss to Tech, which set the table for the last two days.
"We had a long meeting about some things on Wednesday, going over things and trying to take pressure off of them and understand that this is how the game is really meant to be played," Federico said. "If you watch a big league game, that's kind of what it is every night. It is fun to be in those situations and to know now we can win one of these."
The Warhawks hopped on top in the bottom of the first inning. With nobody on and two outs, Chad Bell ripped a double off the left field wall. Andrew Beesley followed with a bloop single to right center, scoring Bell for the 1-0 lead. Bell said he was trying to help elevate Little Rock starting pitcher Chandler Fidel's pitch count.
"You're just trying to make that starter to go as long as you can and throw as many pitches as you can," Bell said. "I got a fastball with two strikes, put a pretty good swing on it and drove it in the gap for a double. Andrew Beesley comes through like he always does. Definitely big time, set the tone for the game."
The Warhawks doubled the lead in the second inning. Ryan Humeniuk led off with a walk and stole second base. Masen Prososki followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Humeniuk to third. After Carson Klepzig was hit by a pitch, Braedon Barrett beat out a potential inning-ending double play ball at first base, allowing Humeniuk to score, putting the Warhawks up 2-0.
After Little Rock tallied a run in the top of the fourth, the Warhawks answered in the bottom of the fourth. Humeniuk opened with a triple to right-center, and scored when Klepzig reached on an error to put the Warhawks back up 3-2.
Little Rock pulled back within a run in the top of the fifth thanks to an error, a sacrifice bunt and a groundout by Ryan Benavidez to score Chase Coker, cutting the deficit to 3-2.
The Trojans nearly tied the game in the top of the seventh inning. With one out, Christian Reyes hit a fly ball off the top of the wall off of reliever Kolton Childress. The ball bounced back into the field of play, but the third base umpire initially ruled the play as a home run to tie the game at three. After an appeal from Federico, the umpires conferred and ultimately overruled the initial call of home run and placed Reyes back at second base. Childress responded by striking out Benavidez and inducing a groundout from Riley Pittman to end the inning with ULM still in front 3-2.
"I'm yelling in the dugout, 'hey, if this thing gets reversed, it's time,'" Federico said. "You cannot allow the negative things that might be going through your head, and it worked. Childress did a really good job of showing the presence right there and hanging that zero."
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Humeniuk opened the frame with his fifth home run of the season, a solo shot to left-center, to double the lead to 4-2.
"Early in the at bat, I was hunting the fastball, trying to hit it right back off his forehead," Humeniuk said. "I was a little early, kept the first one down the line. I shifted my sides a little bit more to left-center. He threw a slider in there, kind of left it up in the zone, backed it up a little bit. I put a good swing on it and I hit it hard."
Following the home run, Prososki drew a walk. He moved around to third off a ground ball and a fly ball. Then, with Joey Jordan on first base, Jordan and Prososki broke from their respective bases nearly simultaneously. Prososki raced home, beating the throw which got away from the catcher Ramon Padilla, to steal home and give the Warhawks a 5-2 lead.
Childress gave up a walk in the ninth inning, but retired the side to secure the win.
Trey Jeans (2-6) picked up the win, throwing 6 innings with two runs, one earned, on four hits with three walks and eight strikeouts.
"Their lineup is very good," Federico said. "They're older, they're experienced, they've got the right-left match-ups that you go through. Last week, Trey got really comfortable with his changeup because there was so many right-handed hitters in there. Today, he couldn't get in the flow of finding what secondary pitch was really working for him. There was moments where the slider was really good, and there was moments where the changeup was, but it wasn't consistent throughout. His pitch count got elevated a little bit. He did an outstanding job and limited the damage when we needed it."
Childress threw the final three innings to earn his second save, giving up no runs on two hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
"Childress has kind of been nursing some things a little bit," Federico said. "We're trying to take it very easy with him. But at the same time, we can expand him. We've got to pick and choose how many pitches he's going to throw and how often. I told Gray and a couple of the other relievers, 'if we can get through this with him, that's what we're going to do, because he's burnt for the weekend.' Three games in 24 hours, he's not going to be able to throw again. It worked out well."
Bell, Beesley and Humeniuk each had two hits, with Bell hitting a pair of doubles while Beesely and Humeniuk each tallied a triple and an RBI.
"All year, we've been in close games, but we just haven't been able to get the two out hit or make the pitch when we needed to," Bell said. "Definitely feels good to win one of the close ones. Now we've got to build off of it going into tomorrow."
The Warhawks and Trojans will play a doubleheader at noon Saturday at Warhawk Field. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
