Baton Rouge, La. – Logan Wurm hit an RBI single in the top of the eighth inning to give ULM its first lead, and then scored what turned out to be the game-winning run on a fielder's choice by Andrew Beesley, as the Warhawks rallied past Southern for a 5-4 win Tuesday night at Lee Hines Field.
The Warhawks (17-23) trailed 3-0 through three innings, and picked up their first win this season when trailing at the end of six innings.
"We've been pretty resilient and I guess, finally, the stars aligned tonight," said head coach Michael Federico. "That's a good Southern baseball team. They're a regional caliber team, especially leading the league right now in the SWAC. I'm proud of our guys. We had a couple boneheaded decisions from the defensive side that kind of cost us some extra pitches and some things. We had some quality at bats. We had some RBIs from the bottom of the lineup guys. We kind of shook up the lineup, changed up a little bit of the order, and it worked out tonight."
The Warhawks trailed 3-2 going to the seventh inning when Trent Tingelstad hit a one out double into the right field corner. Jake Kaufman came on to pinch run, and moved to third on a fly ball to center field by Andrew Beesley. Kaufman scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 3.
In the top of the eighth, Joey Jordan singled to open the inning, and moved around to third on a pair of wild pitches. With the infield drawn in, Wurm hit a sharp single off the glove of the Southern third baseman, and ricocheted deep into the hole at shortstop, allowing Jordan to score and Wurm to reach with an RBI single, giving the Warhawks a 4-3 lead.
"I had a tough day leading up to that at bat," Wurm said. "I was hitting with base runners on all day and I didn't come through the first couple of times. I really just settled down and slowed my breathing down. He left a changeup up, and I hit it hard and got it through."
Nathan Miranda and Cade Harper each followed with singles to load the bases, allowing Wurm to score on Beesley's fielder's choice for the 5-3 lead.
Prior to Tuesday night, ULM was 0-21 on the season when trailing at the end of the sixth inning.
"The energy in the dugout, after we pulled ahead, was kind of like a burden off our back a little bit," Wurm said. "We were all real happy. Then when (Landon Longsworth) comes out there and shoves it like that, when he steps out there on the mound, it's like ok, here we go."
After giving a run back to Southern in the bottom of the eighth, Landon Longsworth came on and worked a scoreless ninth with a pair of strikeouts for his first save. Miles Dunn picked up the win in relief.
Cole Martin kept the Warhawks in the game, limiting the damage in the second and third innings as Southern (24-17) claimed the early lead. Martin pitched 5 1/3 innings while taking a no-decision in the start, giving up three runs, only one earned, on eight hits with two walks and a season-high six strikeouts.
"I felt pretty good," Martin said. "Just like the last start, I wanted to go out there and establish the strike zone and let my defense work behind me because they've been doing really well. Had the two-seam working and I was able to get a lot of ground balls."
"He was just on with all his pitches," said Wurm, the ULM catcher. "There wasn't a count where I didn't want to call a breaking ball or a changeup. When you're on like that, it's really hard to have good at bats put together. I think he really had them off balance all night with all his pitches."
For Martin, it marks the second straight start in which he has thrown at least five innings, after pitching into the seventh inning in last week's start against Louisiana Tech. Federico credits that to the development of his two-seam fastball and adding movement to his pitches.
"He's been a lot of four-seamers (fastball) all year, and trying to get him to buy in to the movement side on his pitches," Federico said. "He's a really good strike thrower for the most part. Sometimes, he tries to live up in the zone a little bit with that four-seamer, and I think early on in the year he was getting hit. Tonight, that's the first double play we've turned behind him the entire year. We've been talking about those opportunities to cut your pitch count down with movement on your fastball or changeup. He's gotten some swings on his changeup the last couple weeks, where guys have put the ball in play instead of just swings and misses. He still got his strikeouts. He cut his pitch count down, which was huge. That's what he's got to be able to do for us."
The Warhawks continue their week on the road this weekend when they face Arkansas State in Jonesboro, Ark., for a three-game Sun Belt Conference series starting Friday. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.
