MONROE, La. - The ULM baseball team heads to Oxford, Mississippi, to face No. 2 Ole Miss for a pair of midweek games. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and 4 p.m. Wednesday at Swayze Field. They are the first two midweek games of the year for ULM after last week's game against Northwestern State was postponed twice due to weather.
Both games of the midweek set are available to stream on SEC Network +. Richard Cross (play-by-play) and Brady Bramlett (analyst) will have the call of Tuesday's game, while Will Kollmeyer (play-by-play) and Keith Kessinger (analyst) will have Wednesday's game. Tuesday's game will air on 105.7 FM/540 AM KMLB, KMLB.com and the TuneIn app, while Wednesday's game will stream on KMLB.com and the TuneIn app.
Mike Hammett will have the call of both games on the Warhawk Radio Network from Learfield.
Tuesday's game marks the 52nd all-time meeting between ULM and Ole Miss, with the Rebels leading the series, 38-12-1. It is the third consecutive season the Warhawks and Rebels have met, with Ole Miss sweeping two midweek games in Monroe in 2020 in the final two games before the season shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, winning 6-3 and 18-7 on March 10-11. Last season, ULM surprised No. 3 Ole Miss, salvaging the Sunday game from a weekend series at Swayze Field, 8-3. The Rebels won the first two games of the series, 10-1 and 6-5.
ULM (1-4 overall) lost both games in its weekend set with Missouri, 4-3 and 4-2, at Warhawk Field. ULM led 3-1 in the seventh inning on Friday before Mizzou loaded the bases with two outs and scored three runs on Tre Morris' infield single, which included two Warhawk throwing errors on the play. On Sunday, the Tigers used another error with two outs to plate the game's first run and added two more on back-to-back home runs by Ross Lovich and Josh Day before holding on for the 4-2 win. Saturday's game was canceled due to cold temperatures and off-and-on rain in Monroe.
ULM head coach
Michael Federico is in his fifth season with the Warhawks. After leading the club to an 11-win improvement in his first year and a two-win improvement in his second year, he led the Warhawks to their first .500-or-better season since 2012 with a 26-26 mark in 2021 as ULM finished third in the Sun Belt Conference West Division. Federico is 1-4 against Ole Miss after picking up the 8-3 win in the series finale last season.
Ole Miss is ranked No. 2 this week by D1Baseball.com after moving to 6-0 following a two-game weekend sweep of VCU, winning 10-4 on Friday and 14-3 in seven innings Sunday. Saturday's game was canceled due to weather. The Rebels have won four of their six games by at least 10 runs after sweeping Charleston Southern on opening weekend and taking a midweek contest in five innings, 15-5, over Arkansas State last Tuesday. They have scored at least nine runs in all six games.
Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco is in his 22nd season with the Rebels, going 818-462-1 with the Rebels and 918-533-1 in his 24 year career.
SCHULZ NAMED PRESEASON ALL-SUN BELT CONFERENCE BY PERFECT GAME
ULM senior third baseman
Grant Schulz was selected to Perfect Game's Sun Belt Conference Preseason Team at designated hitter.
Schulz led the Warhawks with a .333 batting average in 2021, which ranked fifth in the Sun Belt Conference. He had 10 doubles, two triples, four home runs, 30 RBIs, 22 runs scored and 12 walks while playing in 42 games with 35 starts on the season. Schulz was a big part of ULM's late-season surge. Schulz hit a team-best .440 (33-for-75) from April 18 to May 28 with eight doubles, two triples, three home runs, 20 RBIs, 18 runs scored, five walks and two stolen bases. In that span, Schulz raised his batting average from .185 to lead the team at .333. He hit safely in nine of the last 10 games with six multi-hit games in that stretch.
Schulz opened the 2022 season going 3-for-12 against Southern Illinois, starting all three games at third base. He had two hits and two RBIs with a walk, a run scored and a stolen base in Sunday's 10-9 loss to the Salukis.
LOCAL CONNECTIONS
The 2022 ULM roster features seven players from inside Ouachita Parish. The Warhawks have four players who attended West Monroe High School (senior
Ryan Cupit, sophomores
Chase DeJean and
Carson Jones and freshman
Lane Little), two from Sterlington High School (redshirt freshman
Adam Tubbs and true freshman
William Perkins) and one from Ouachita Parish High School (true freshman
Zach Shaw). Overall, the Warhawks have 17 players hailing from the state of Louisiana.
P-40 SUNDAYS
ULM unveiled its P-40 Warhawk series uniforms on March 7, 2021, vs. Nicholls. The Warhawks will wear the P-40 uniforms on every Sunday, home or away, and for select midweek games. The Curtiss P-40 Warhawks constituted the principal armament of the U.S. Army Air Force (USAFF) fighter squadrons in the early 1940s. In the summer of 1941, Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, who grew up in Louisiana, began recruiting and training pilots for the American Volunteer Group, who became known as the "Flying Tigers" in China during World War II. The P-40 Warhawk served as inspiration for ULM's new nickname/mascot, adopted in 2006. The P-40 uniform series incorporates details of the fighter into its design. The ULM baseball team is the third Warhawk team to wear a P-40 Warhawk alternate uniform, joining football and men's basketball.
O CANADA!
The 2021 ULM baseball roster features two players from Canada: pitcher
Tylor Jans (Edmonton, Alberta) and pitcher
Lucas Wepf (Brampton, Ontario).
