ULM Warhawks

Monroe, La. - The ULM Warhawks enter the double-elimination portion of the bracket at the 2019 Sun Belt Conference Championships on Wednesday when they meet up with top seed and regular season champion Texas State. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C.

Setting the Scene

ULM picked up its first postseason win in five years with a 12-7 win over South Alabama in the first round of the SBC Tournament on Tuesday in Conway. ULM has now won at least one game in five of the six SBC Tournaments in which it has played. The Warhawks are now 25-29 overall and finished 12-17 in the SBC, good for fifth place in the West Division.

Texas State is the top seed for the SBC Tournament after winning the conference's regular season championship. The Bobcats clinched the title by taking two out of three games on the final weekend over UT Arlington, sealing the title with a 10-9 win on Friday afternoon. The Bobcats also won the series finale Friday night 13-11. UTA won the series opener 5-3 on Thursday. The Bobcats enter the tournament at 36-18 overall and 20-10 in the SBC.

Friday's game marks the 81st all-time meeting between the Warhawks and Bobcats, with Texas State leading the series 46-34. The two teams met as members of the Southland Conference from 1988 to 2006, when ULM departed the SLC for the Sun Belt, and then resumed the series in 2014 when Texas State joined the Sun Belt. The Bobcats swept ULM in the regular season, winning 5-1, 6-5 and 13-1 in seven innings from March 22 to 24 in San Marcos.

ULM met Texas State in its most recent postseason game prior to Tuesday's win over South Alabama. The Bobcats ended ULM's run in the 2014 Sun Belt Conference Tournament with a 4-2 win on May 23 in Mobile, Ala. Before that meeting, the Warhawks and Bobcats last met in the postseason in 2003, when both schools were members of the Southland Conference.

ULM head coach Michael Federico is in his second season with the Warhawks. He led the team to an 11-win improvement in his first season, as the Warhawks posted a 23-31 record in 2018. He is 48-60 overall as the head coach at ULM.

Texas State head coach Ty Harrington is in his 20th season leading the Bobcats. Harrington has led Texas State to three NCAA Regional appearances (2000, 2009, 2011) and has won at least 29 games and posted a winning record in conference play in 18 of his 20 seasons. He is 657-514-2 all-time at Texas State.

Leading Off

Chad Bell continues to put a strong finish on his senior season. Bell is riding a career-high 20-game hitting streak, posting six hits for the second straight weekend against the Ragin' Cajuns and following it with an RBI single vs. South Alabama on Tuesday to keep the streak alive. Bell has 18 home runs on the season to lead the Sun Belt Conference. He is also one home run shy of the school single season record of 19, set by Corey Taylor in 1998. Bell is also climbing the ULM single-season leaderboards in total bases with 143, sitting alone in fourth place, one behind Jason Wolfe's 1999 season with 144 total bases. In the Sun Belt, Bell ranks second in slugging percentage (.668) and total bases (143), tied for fifth in RBIs (51) and tied for seventh in hits (71). 

Andrew Beesley continues to hold steady for the ULM offense. Beesley is second on the Warhawks in batting average at .340, which ranks seventh in the SBC. Beesley is tied for seventh in the SBC with 71 hits and is tied for seventh with 14 stolen bases.

Ryan Humeniuk continues to excel at getting on base. The junior had a 22-game reached base streak snapped in game two of a doubleheader vs. UT Arlington on May 3, but followed that game by reaching base in the next seven games. After failling to reach base safely on Tuesday, Humeniuk has reached base in 29 of the last 31 games. The stretch started on March 26 at Louisiana Tech. 

Trent Tingelstad sits in the top 10 of the SBC in several categories. Tingelstad is second in the Sun Belt with a .346 batting average, third in on base percentage at .464 and eighth in slugging percentage at .571. He is tied for third in doubles at 17, tied for the conference lead in triples with four and tied for third in walks with 39.

Two seniors, Joey Jordan and Braeden Barrett, saved two of their top performances for their first postseason games. Jordan had a career high five hits with an RBI and two runs scored vs. South Alabama, while Barrett had a season-high three hits and two RBIs.