MONROE, La. – Two ULM pitchers combined on a shutout while senior Trace Henry's two-out RBI single scored freshman pinch-runner William Perkins for the only run of the game, as ULM unveiled the new-look Warhawk Field with a 1-0 win over Southern Illinois Friday night to open the 2022 season.
 
"I can't say enough about SIU," ULM head coach Michael Federico said. "That's a good team. I'm proud of the way our guys stuck to our plan. We did a good job of getting Chapman out and getting into the bullpen."
 
Redshirt sophomore pitcher Cam Barlow matched a career-high by tossing seven shutout innings, scattering four hits with a career-best 11 strikeouts in taking a no-decision. Senior Lucas Wepf (1-0) earned his first win of the season by throwing two shutout innings of relief, allowing no hits with two strikeouts and one walk.
 
The Warhawk (1-0) pitching duo outdueled SIU's (0-1) Ben Chapman and Matthew Steidl (0-1). Chapman threw seven shutout innings, allowing two hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
 
After Chapman exited the game, ULM managed to scratch out a run against Steidl. After Chapman retired the final 16 batters he faced, sophomore Caleb Sterling led off the bottom of the eighth against Steidl with a single to center. Senior Ryan Cupit moved Sterling to second on a sacrifice bunt. After Perkins came on as a pinch runner, Jones struck out, but Perkins stole third on the pitch to put the go-ahead run 90 feet away. Henry took the 1-0 pitch and hit a flair to right field, dropping in for a base hit to score Perkins for the 1-0 advantage.
 
"I saw that he wasn't really landing his breaking ball," Henry said. "I was sitting dead red heater. He threw it first pitch for a ball. I had hit two balls hard earlier in the game for outs, but in the scorebook, that looks like a hard hit to right. It gets the job done."
 
Barlow and Chapman both pitched at a quick pace and were major contributors to the game lasting just one hour and 51 minutes. Barlow says Chapman matching his pace helped him lock in.
 
"He was working fast, as well, and got me back out there going," Barlow said. "I didn't have a long break at all. He was pounding the strike zone as well. It was awesome. It was fun."
 
Barlow allowed leadoff hits in back-to-back innings, giving up a single in the fourth to Kaeber Rog and a double in the fifth to Zack Jensen. Barlow retired the next three hitters in each inning to keep the Salukis off the board. He finished with at least one strikeout in each of his seven innings.
 
"Both Chapman and Barlow were doing a great job with the location with the zone," Federico said. "They both kind of expanded it a little bit. They were chasing fastballs early in the count and (Cam) was able to get ahead. I can't say enough about Cam. He just keeps shoving it in there with strikes. He had three pitches kind of rolling. When you limit your walks and limit the errors, that makes for a quick game."
 
Barlow credits his new battery mate, Sterling, for his strikeout success.
 
"Caleb Sterling behind the plate, he stole a lot of strikes for me," Barlow said. "He worked really well back there. I haven't had the opportunity to throw much to Caleb. Tonight, it didn't matter. That dude worked for me."
 
"It was the speed," Sterling said of Barlow's success. "We were constantly going at it. Cam did a heck of a job on the mound tonight. I tried to steal as many strikes as I could."
 
The game marked the debut of the latest renovations at Warhawk Field, including a new FieldTurf surface, adjusted walls along the foul lines, bullpens moved out of the field of play and a new premium seating section behind home plate. Former Northeast Louisiana head coach Lou St. Amant was honored before the game for making the largest contribution to the project and for his help making phone calls to raise funds.
 
"The atmosphere was huge," Henry said. "There late, there were some calls that weren't going our way, and the fans really got into it. We really feed off of them. When there is a good crowd like there was tonight, it just makes us play a little bit harder. It was electric. That was a fun night at the ballpark."
 
"You want to put a good product on the field and you want people to be entertained and you want them to come back," Federico said. "We have a good product. We have a nice facility that has gotten better every year since I've been here. I think there's some people that are prideful about ULM baseball. Hopefully we can continue to get people to come back and see us. It changes the game when you have that home support. It was great to see a really good crowd.
 
The Warhawks and Salukis meet again at 6 p.m. Saturday.
 
"Winning series is really important for us to learn at this early part of the season," Federico said. "Finding a way to do it tomorrow would make it ideal, but if it doesn't happen tomorrow, we come back on Sunday. All we can do is control Saturday."
 
Links to live audio and stats are available on the baseball schedule page at ULMWarhawks.com.