MONROE, La. – Jake Haggard powered a three-run blast to highlight a high-scoring assault from ULM Baseball in an 11-2 opening day victory over Central Arkansas Friday afternoon.
 
It's the first win of the Ford Pemberton era and the second consecutive opening day win for the Warhawks. They defeated Eastern Illinois last season, 11-7, to start 2025.
 
The Warhawks (1-0) shut things down at the top of the first with Brandt Corley on the mound, working a strikeout. In the bottom frame, after a groundout, Micah Dean collected the first hit of the season, and Bryce Blaser forced a walk to put two runners on with one out. A double play ended the threat the next at bat as the score remained at 0-0.
 
Both teams went in and out of the second inning with nothing going with Corley striking out another Central Arkansas (0-1) batter. After a scoreless top of the third, a Davis Mauzy base hit, followed by a Kade Dupont walk, and Dean's hit had the bases loaded. Mauzy and Dupont both came home on two bases-loaded walks as ULM led 2-0 after three.
 
The Bears singled twice in the top of the fourth to put two on at first and second. With two outs, Casey Shipley singled to right field to get on base, and a throwing error brought home the run to put UCA on the board. With the bases loaded, Corley limited the damage with his fifth K of the day to keep the Warhawks in front. With two outs in the bottom half, Mauzy produced an infield single to get on base before a Dupont double to center field put ULM up by two runs.
 
In the top frame of the fifth inning, UCA had the first two batters reach to cover first and third. A sacrifice fly scored a runner, but Corley picked up two more strikeouts to bring his total to seven after five innings pitched. The Warhawks produced two runners to scoring position with two outs. Jackson Landry lined a hit into left field to score both runners to make it a 5-2 game after the fifth.
 
Adam Tubbs entered in relief in the top of the sixth and produced a double play to hold the Bears scoreless. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the inning, Marcus Aranda lined a double into left field to put ULM up 7-2. In the next at bat, Haggard launched a three-run homer to make the lead eight with three innings left to play.
 
After no runs in the top of the seventh, the Warhawks added another run via a sacrifice fly by Dupont to make it 11-2 after seven. Tubbs blanked UCA for the next two innings to secure the win and earn his first save of the season.
 
Corley also earned his first win of the season. His line included 5.1 innings pitched with eight strikeouts, only allowing three hits and one earned run on 81 total pitches. Aranda and Haggard both had three-RBI performances, while Dupont and Landry also had multi-RBI games.
 
The Warhawks are back tomorrow at The Lou against the Bears for a doubleheader. Game one is scheduled for 1 p.m., while game two starts 30 minutes afterwards.