MONROE, La. – Chipper Menard threw six shutout innings, allowing just two hits with a career-high 11 strikeouts, while Nicholas Judice and Carson Orton combined for three scoreless innings out of the bullpen as ULM salvaged Sunday's series finale from Nicholls, 5-0, at Lou St. Amant Field.
 
Menard (2-1) allowed just two hits with five walks while firing 102 pitches, earning his second win of the season.
 
"It started with Chipper and the energy level that he had and the intensity that he had was just amazing to get this win today," ULM head coach Michael Federico said. "Every game pretty much starts and stops with pitching. You have to show up every day from that standpoint. You have to minimize some stuff. Chipper walked a few people, but at the same time, he got the strikeouts when he needed to."
 
He outdueled Nicholls starter and true freshman Jacob Mayers (3-1), who took his first-career loss, allowing just one run on one hit with three walks and seven strikeouts over five innings in a tough-luck loss.
 
The game was scoreless to the fifth inning when ULM broke the stalemate. Jake Haggard walked to open the inning and Shawn Dalton Weatherbee was hit by a pitch. Cardell Thibodeaux reached on a bunt down the third base line to load the bases with no outs. Matt Abshire, in his first game back in the lineup after missing two weeks with an injury, hit a sacrifice fly to center to put the Warhawks on top, 1-0. ULM reloaded the bases with one out, but a lineout into a double play ended the inning.
 
"That one run felt like a hundred," Federico said. "After the last two days, it felt like that's a lot of runs on the board, and it carried over."
 
The Warhawk defense settled in behind Menard and Judice out of the bullpen, with Zack Floyd making a backhanded stop deep behind the third base bag, leaping and throwing to first, where Haggard picked the ball out of the turf for the first out of the top of the seventh inning.
 
"We made a couple really nice defensive plays," Federico said. "Zack Floyd made a really nice play and Jake Haggard, who was thrown into the lineup late with (Michelle Artzberger) going down banged up a little bit, picked a couple balls. That was huge."
 
ULM tacked on another run in the bottom of the seventh as Weatherbee walked with one out and stole second base. He moved to third on Thibodeaux's groundout and scored on a wild pitch to double the lead, 2-0.
 
The Warhawks then poured it on in the bottom of the eighth. Carson Jones led off with an infield single and scored from first base on Kade Dupont's RBI double down the left-field line, marking ULM's first hit out of the infield on the game. Zack Floyd followed with an RBI single to right and Riley Davis added an RBI double down the left-field line to push the lead to 5-0.
 
"That eighth inning was fun to actually see hits and see the guys smiling and knowing that if you can get into the bullpen, that's what can happen sometimes. Most people's bullpens aren't as good as what those starters are."
 
Five different players had ULM's five hits, while Garrett Felix, who had seven hits in the series, had a pair of singles to lead Nicholls. The Colonels only had five hits on the day.
 
"I don't feel like we've quit. We just maybe haven't gotten a hit or hadn't made a pitch and those things are going to happen sometimes," Federico said. "But we've been showing up and we've been playing hard. I don't feel like we've ever quit in a game. Ultimately, it's results oriented and wins are wins. It was nice to be back on track with that today. It was a long week. It was our second double midweek. Now we go to four games a week for the rest of the year. We're ready for conference."
 
ULM visits Northwestern State at 6 p.m. Tuesday before opening Sun Belt Conference play on Friday vs. Old Dominion at Lou St. Amant Field.