Barnes, Deeds Combine on One-Hitter in ULM Win Over SEMO, 5-1

MONROE, La. – Ty Barnes was masterful in his 2020 debut, and Conner Deeds backed him up with three hitless innings to close the game, as the ULM baseball team opened the season with a 5-1 victory over Southeast Missouri Friday afternoon at Warhawk Field.

The duo combined to hurl a one-hitter as Southeast Missouri had just six men reach base in the game.

“It’s great to have two seniors out there,” ULM head coach Michael Federico said. “They both kind have been struggling a little bit. Ty missed practice on Wednesday, not feeling real good, so we told him to go home and try to stay away from everybody. He definitely wanted the ball. I didn’t know what we were going to get out of him. He put us in a really good spot early on.”

Barnes threw six innings, giving up just an unearned run with one hit, three walks and five strikeouts. In four of his six innings, he retired the Redhawks in order. SEMO scored its only run in the third inning off the strength of two walks, a wild pitch, fielder’s choice and a passed ball.

Barnes bounced back with back-to-back perfect innings in the fourth and fifth before running into trouble again in the sixth. With runners on first and second and just one out, and SEMO preseason All-American Tyler Wilber coming to the plate, Federico strolled to the mound to visit with Barnes and catcher Logan Wurm. With Deeds warming in the pen, Federico decided to stick with Barnes, and it paid off. Barnes induced an inning-ending double play ball, and kept SEMO’s lead at just 1-0.

“A day like this, it’s cold, it’s an advantage for me,” Barnes said. “There were six lefties in the lineup. That’s a lot of lefties. I just had to grind it out. Getting ahead early in the count was big for me. The changeup was kind of working at the beginning and then it kind of fell off. I just had to find a way to get the job done, and I did.”

The double play ball seemingly shifted the momentum to ULM. After the offense had mustered just one hit against SEMO starter Dylan Dodd through five innings, the Warhawks came to life in the sixth, putting up four runs.

Mason Holt led off the inning with a single to center. After Beesley’s sacrifice bunt moved Holt to second, Wiley Cleland connected for an RBI single to center, bringing home Holt and tying the game at one. After Ryan Humeniuk reached on a fielder’s choice for the second out of the inning, ULM kept the rally going. Danny DeSimone singled and sent Humeniuk to third. Grant Schulz then hit a grounder deep into the hole at shortstop, and Wilber had no play, allowing Humeniuk to score for the 2-1 advantage. Wurm followed with a single into the right-center field gap, bringing home both DeSimone and Schulz for the 4-1 lead.

Deeds took over on the hill in the seventh for ULM, and retired nine of the 10 batters he faced, giving up a walk to go with three strikeouts. ULM added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI groundout by Trace Henry, scoring Schulz to go up 5-1.

“Conner did a great job,” Federico said. “Ty’s pitch count got up to 92. It’s probably a little bit more than I wanted to throw Ty today, but he had some things going and was kind of cruising a little bit, other than the one inning with the two walks.”

Dodd was dominant early for SEMO, limiting ULM to one hit through five innings. He took the loss in his 2020 debut, giving up four runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

“He was good,” Federico said. “That’s a good Friday night guy that we need to see early. I was proud of the guys. They let the game come to them. They didn’t press. They didn’t panic. Then we got to those middle innings and we put a little bit of pressure on them.”

Henry said Dodd was tough to solve.

“He had our number early,” Henry said. “Coach Fed and Coach (Matt) Collins were telling us hitters to stay the course, keep sticking to what we’re doing. He was good early. That’s just something about our team, we find a way. We found a way there in the sixth inning and put up a four spot.”

Wurm and Schulz had two hits apiece for ULM, with Wurm driving in two runs and Schulz one. Danny Wright had the only hit of the game for SEMO, a single in the sixth inning.

The Warhawks and Redhawks continue the series at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon. For tickets, visit ULMWarhawks.com. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.