ULM Warhawks

MONROE, La. - The ULM baseball team plays its final non-conference weekend series of the 2022 season as they visit Ben Meyer Diamond at Ray E. Didier Field in Thibodaux, Louisiana, to face Nicholls. Due to the potential for rain Friday night and cold temperatures Saturday night, first pitch for all three games will be at 1 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

All three games of the weekend series will air on the Warhawk Radio Network from Learfield with Mike Hammett on the call. Friday's contest is only available online at KMLB.com and the TuneIn app, while Saturday and Sunday's contests will also be available over the air on 105.7 FM/540 AM KMLB. Links to live stats are available on the baseball schedule page at ULMWarhawks.com.

Friday's game is the 130th meeting between the Warhawks and Colonels, with ULM leading the series, 75-54. ULM won the final two games of last year's series in Monroe, taking the second game of a doubleheader on Saturday, March 6, 5-3, and the series finale on Sunday, March 7, 6-4. Nicholls won the first game of the Saturday doubleheader, 5-2. Friday's game is the first meeting between the two squads in the regular season in Thibodaux since April 29, 2015, a 16-6 Nicholls victory. It is the first time ULM has visited Thibodaux for a weekend since the Carmel Inn Showdown on Feb. 20-22, 2014, and the first true series between the two at Ray E. Didier Field since Feb. 22-24, 2008, when ULM swept three games from the Colonels, 1-0, 11-6 and 16-7. 

ULM (2-9 overall) snapped a nine-game losing streak with a 6-2 win over Northwestern State Wednesday night at Warhawk Field. Sophomore Landon Cato hit a 3-run home run while senior Colby Deaville added an RBI double. Freshman Henry Shuffler and sophomore Cole Cressend pitched three shutout innings each. The Warhawks are hitting .240 as a team while posting a team ERA of 6.06.

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 2-1 against Nicholls, with all meetings coming last season.

Nicholls (8-6 overall) has won seven of its last nine games after opening the season 1-4 against Missouri and Tulane. The Colonels defeated St. Thomas (Texas) on Wednesday, 10-0 in seven innings, and took two of three games at Memphis last weekend, winning 14-8 and 14-9 on Friday and Saturday before dropping the series finale, 9-6. Nicholls is hitting .299 as a team with a 5.56 team ERA.

Nicholls head coach Mike Silva is in his first season leading the Colonels after spending three seasons as the associate head coach and pitching coach at Louisiana Tech, helping the Bulldogs to the No. 18 overall seed in last year's NCAA Tournament. Friday marks Silva's first meeting with ULM as a head coach. He previously spent time on the coaching staff at Little Rock and Texas State.

SENIORS HELP JUMP START WARHAWK OFFENSE
ULM seniors Colby Deaville and Ryan Cupit helped the Warhawks pick up an offensive jolt over the weekend series against New Orleans and it continued Wednesday vs. Northwestern State.

Deaville made his second start of the season last Saturday vs. the Privateers and responded with career highs in hits (four) and RBIs (three). He had two doubles with two runs scored with a walk and a stolen base. He tallied two more hits last Sunday. He had his third straight multi-hit game on Wednesday with two hits, including an RBI double, vs. Northwestern State.

Cupit started the final two games of the weekend, going 0-for-1 but with four walks and a run scored on Saturday. He then had a career-high four hits with a double off the center field wall, RBI and a run scored on Sunday vs. UNO. He added a walk with a run scored on Wednesday vs. NSU.

The duo combined to go 12-for-21 over the last three games with four doubles, five RBIs, seven runs scored and six walks.

CATO BREAKS THROUGH
ULM sophomore Landon Cato earned his first three career extra-base hits vs. New Orleans over the weekend and then added to his total on Wednesday vs. Northwestern State. 

Cato opened with a double off the batter's eye in center field last Saturday before adding a 2-run home run to right center later in the game to finish 2-for-4 with a double, home run, two RBIs, two runs scored and a walk. Last Sunday, he doubled again, going 1-for-5 with a run scored. On Wednesday vs. NSU, he had a career-high three hits, including a 3-run home run to left field, while adding two runs scored and a walk.

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 has hit safely in eight of 11 games and reached base safely in 10 of 11 games to begin the season. His 12 hits lead the team.

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, sophomore 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.

O CANADA!
The 2021 ULM baseball roster features two players from Canada: pitcher Tylor Jans (Edmonton, Alberta) and pitcher Lucas Wepf (Brampton, Ontario).