MONROE, La. – Easton Winfield had three hits and was one of four players with two RBIs as ULM rolled to a 13-3 run-rule victory over Grambling in seven innings Tuesday night at Lou St. Amant Field.
Winfield came a home run shy of the cycle, hitting a single and scoring in the second inning, picking up a double with an RBI and scoring in the fourth inning, walking and scoring in the fifth inning and adding an RBI triple in the sixth inning.
Jake Haggard added two RBIs with a 2-run home run,
Marcus Aranda drove in a pair of runs and
Jayson Zmejkoski hit a walk-off 2-RBI single to end the game by run rule in the seventh inning.
The offensive outburst coupled well with a positive night on the mound and defensively for ULM (2-2 overall) as well.
Seaver Sheets (1-0) earned his first win in his first career start, throwing two innings, allowing one run on two hits with four strikeouts and one walk. He struck out the side in the second inning before exiting the game.
Trey Lindsay threw two scoreless innings with two strikeouts and a walk,
Aidan Haynes did not allow a run in 1 1/3 innings with two strikeouts and
Brandt Corley pitched the final 2/3 of an inning with one walk.
"He hasn't been pitching real long," ULM head coach
Michael Federico said of Sheets. "He knows how to pitch, that's why we would put him out there. At the same time, he's got to get some rhythm into it. The second inning, that's who he is. He's got to have a little bit of that swagger about himself. You could tell he was kind of bobbing his head a little bit back and forth."
Defensively,
Carson Jones displayed his range in the top of the seventh inning, spinning to make a throw across the diamond to first, while
Colby Lunsford caught a line drive to help turn a double play to end the inning.
After Grambling took the lead in the top of the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Walker, ULM answered in the bottom of the second inning with Haggard's 2-run home run with two outs, putting the Warhawks up, 2-1.
ULM added to the lead in the fourth inning thanks to four walks and two Grambling errors. Winfield hit an RBI double, Aranda added an RBI on a groundout and Winfield scored on a wild pitch as ULM posted three runs on one hit in the inning to lead 5-1.
Grambling responded with a 2-run home run by Martavious Thomas in the top of the fifth inning to pull within two, 5-3. ULM answered back with four runs in the bottom of the inning, as
Ian Montz hit an RBI triple, a throwing error allowed two runs to score and Aranda picked up an RBI single for the 9-3 advantage.
The Warhawks added a run in the sixth inning on Winfield's RBI triple to plate Montz, going up 10-3. ULM sealed the game in the seventh as
Michelle Artzberger hit an RBI double and Zmejkoski followed with a pinch-hit 2-RBI single for the 13-3 win in seven innings.
"I felt like we kept the pedal down a little bit, all the way to the end," Federico said.
Thomas had two hits, including the home run, with one RBI and two runs scored for Grambling. The Warhawk pitching staff limited Grambling to just three hits for the game.
ULM wraps up the seven-game season-opening homestand with a three-game series vs. Murray State starting at 6 p.m. Friday.
