MONROE, La. – Ty Barnes fired six shutout innings, Grant Schulz collected a career-high four hits and ULM won its second series-opening game of the season with a 12-1 victory over Southern Friday afternoon at Warhawk Field.
 
"It feels good," Barnes said of the series-opening win. "We've got to come out tomorrow and show up to play to get the series win."
 
Barnes limited the Jaguars to two hits over six innings with no walks and four strikeouts. He said it was difficult to find what was working for him on the afternoon.
 
"Nothing, really, to be honest with you," Barnes said. "My back has been tight the past couple of days, but the main thing was to try to throw strikes and let my defense do the work. Credit to my defense, they made a bunch of plays for me. That's how I normally pitch."
 
"I tell our guys all the time that you have to win when you don't have your stuff sometimes," ULM head coach Michael Federico said. "If you just execute a decent pitch, then you've still got a chance for them to hit it to somebody. He got some fly ball outs that were some routine stuff that was pretty easy. Wiley (Cleland) made an unbelievable play on a ball that was hard hit down the first base line. (Ty) didn't have his best stuff. Hopefully he at least got a little bit of confidence and get us ready for the stretch run of league play."
 
"No matter how I feel or what the day is, I'm going to come out and compete," Barnes said. "I got the guys behind me doing the same. They're going to compete for me. Credit to the offense for putting on a lot of runs for me and making it a little bit easier for me."
 
ULM started giving Barnes run support in the second inning. Cleland walked to open the frame and Travis Washburn was hit by a pitch. Schulz then came through with his first hit of the day, hitting a slow roller through the right side for an RBI single, putting ULM up 1-0.
 
"It really worked out for Schulz on the 0-2 count," Federico said. "We double stole right there and he just happened to hit an away fastball that gets through the right side. It was really probably a ball and G was just trying to foul it off a little bit, but it gets through and it worked for us."
 
Logan Wurm followed Schulz with a 2-RBI single to center to push the lead to 3-0 after two innings.
 
Cleland hit an RBI groundout to score Mason Holt, who walked with one out in the inning, to push the lead to 4-0 in the third.
 
ULM hit another big inning in the fourth. Schulz opened with a double to left and Wurm bunted his way aboard to put runners on the corners. Colby Deaville reached with a bunt single to score Schulz on the squeeze, and a throwing error on the play allowed Wurm to move to third and Deaville to second. A wild pitch brought Wurm home and put Deaville on third. Ryan Humeniuk then picked up an RBI on a fielder's choice as the throw came home but was wide of the plate as Deaville scored for the 7-0 advantage.

Wurm gained his third RBI of the day in the fifth inning with a hard sacrifice bunt to first which brought Washburn home for the 8-0 lead.
 
Three more Southern errors contributed to a 3-run sixth inning. Humeniuk hit a single to open the inning and moved to second on Henry's fly out to the right field corner. Mason Holt brought Humeniuk home with an RBI double. Cleland reached on an error by the shortstop, which moved Holt to third. Cleland stole second base and an errant throw by the catcher allowed Holt to score. Washburn's RBI single plated Cleland for the 11-0 lead.
 
ULM added one more run in the seventh inning on Deaville's RBI double to bring home Chris Noble, who doubled for his first career hit to open the inning.
 
"I'm proud of the offense for doing some little things that led to some big stuff again," Federico said. "We're one of those offenses that you got to think about. Are we going to hit-and-run, are we going to double steal or are we just going to take, those types of things. It makes it unique."
 
Southern added a run in the ninth inning for the final margin.

Schulz finished 4-for-5 at the plate with a double, an RBI and two runs scored, following up on his grand slam on Wednesday night vs. Jackson State.
 
"I've been out of the lineup for a little bit, but you've just got to be ready," Schulz said. "You don't know when your name is going to be called, and when your name is called, you've got to go out there and give it your all and do what I can do to help this team."
 
Wurm finished 2-for-2 with three RBIs and a run scored. Holt, Washburn and Deaville each had two hits while Deaville drove in a pair of runs and Holt and Washburn drove in a run apiece.
 
ULM and Southern are scheduled to continue the series at 2 p.m. Saturday. Links to live audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.