MONROE, La. – Shawn Dalton Weatherbee's walk-off home run to left field sent ULM to its first Sun Belt Conference win of the season, rallying to beat Marshall, 4-3, in 11 innings Saturday afternoon at Lou St. Amant Field.
 
Weatherbee's blast broke a 3-3 stalemate after ULM (10-18 overall, 1-7 Sun Belt Conference) tied the game in the eighth inning when Kade Dupont scored on Zack Floyd's sacrifice bunt.
 
"It was fun to see our guys compete," ULM head coach Michael Federico said. "We created it today instead of just hoping and waiting for it to happen. Shawn Dalton, at the end, gave us the big bolt that we needed, but there were so many other little things. Matt Abshire throwing two guys out early in the game. Defensively, we made a couple of nice plays."
 
The Warhawks had chances to take the lead in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings before Weatherbee's homer won the game. Chenar Brown followed Floyd's bunt with a single to right center to load the bases, putting the potential go-ahead run at third with one out in the eighth inning. However, a double play brought an end to the threat. In the ninth inning, Weatherbee hit an infield single with two outs and advanced to second on a throwing error. However, a fly out ended the inning. In the 10th inning, Jake Haggard hit a one-out single and advanced to third on a single to right by Travis Washburn. However, Haggard was thrown out at home, trying to score on a ground ball by Brown, and another groundout brought an end to the inning.
 
During the three-inning deadlock, ULM's Carson Orton (2-3) was sharp out of the bullpen. Orton allowed just one baserunner, on a single by Kebbler Peralta with two outs in the ninth inning, throwing three shutout innings with two strikeouts. Nicholas Judice also threw three scoreless frames out of the bullpen for ULM, with one hit, two walks and a season-high six strikeouts. Hollis Huff fired five innings in the start, allowing three runs on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
 
"With a young team, when you look at the lineup, really only Carson Jones is the only returner with the nine guys. With Judice and Orton, that's where the leadership came from. It stayed there from the pitching and defensive side of it. We just kind of weathered the storm for the most part and found a way. It was fun to see a new guy do it."
 
ULM took an early lead when Riley Davis hit a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning. Marshall (12-12, 3-5) answered in the second as Gio Ferraro hit a leadoff home run and Peralta followed with an RBI single to score Chris Noble. The Warhawks tied the game in the third when Carson Jones scored on a double play to knot the game at 2. Marshall answered again in the fourth with Ferraro's second leadoff homer of the day to go up 3-2, which held to the eighth inning.
 
Marshall reliever Ryan Capuano (1-1) took the loss, allowing two runs on seven hits with one walk and two strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings. Raymond Pacella threw seven innings in his longest start of the season, allowing two runs on six hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.
 
Weatherbee led ULM with three hits while Davis, Haggard and Jones added two hits apiece. Ferraro had three this for Marshall while Peralta tallied two.
 
"It was a great team win and something that we definitely needed," Federico said. "It got us on the board for the conference, and now gives us a chance to win a weekend. We've got the opportunity and now we have to put those P-40s on and we have to fight and scratch and claw."
 
Due to the possibility of inclement weather late Sunday afternoon, the series finale will start at noon at Lou St. Amant Field.