Sixth inning two-RBI double pushes Ole Miss past ULM

MONROE, La. – Tyler Elko’s two-out, two-RBI double to the left field corner gave No. 5 Ole Miss the lead once again, and this time, the Rebels held on to defeat ULM 6-3 Tuesday night at Warhawk Field.

The Warhawks (12-4 overall) and Rebels (15-1) played in front of a season-high 2,129 fans filling the stands and the left and right field corners. It was the first time a top-10 team had played at Warhawk Field since 2014 when ULM hosted a three-game series against the then No. 6 Ragin’ Cajuns.

“It’s what it’s all about,” ULM head coach Michael Federico said of the environment and capacity crowd. “This is what you hope for every time you step foot in this place. When I took this job and walked into this stadium, I had seen this before, even on midweek games. I told people if we can just get a product out there, we entertained tonight. We hit a home run, we had some strikeouts, a couple double plays. This place can rock a little bit.”

Ole Miss got off to a quick start, as Tyler Keenan hit a three-run home run in the top of the first inning to put the Rebels up 3-0 without recording an out. However, ULM starting pitcher Tyler Lien settled in from there, inducing an inning-ending double play moments later.

The Warhawks answered back in the bottom of the first. After Ryan Humeniuk singled, Danny DeSimone followed with a two-run home run to left field, his sixth homer of the season, to bring the Warhawks back within a run at 3-2.

ULM tied the game up in the bottom of the second inning when Colby Deaville lifted a two-out flair to right center field, dropping it in between three defenders, allowing Grant Schulz to score to tie the game at 3.

The game was deadlocked until the sixth inning when Elko hit the two-out, two-RBI double into the left field corner, scoring Ben Van Cleve and Justin Bench for the 5-3 lead. The Rebels added an insurance run on pinch-hitter Hayden Leatherwood’s RBI single in the ninth inning for the 6-3 win.

Lien bounced back after a rough start to the game for ULM. Lien tossed five innings, giving up three runs on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts in a no-decision. Conner Deeds threw the final four innings to take the loss, giving up three runs on four hits with three walks and five strikeouts.

“I was proud of our guys,” Federico said. “You could look back to a lot of small, little, incremental things. If we could have just got out of there with one or two at that point, instead of the three run. But Tyler did settle in then and gave us a quality start, which is good, and we were in the game. We played with them the entire time. I felt like we had some damage control at times. We got a couple strikeouts when we needed to. We saw power arms tonight, which we’re going to see against Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern and others in our league. We saw that, and hopefully we’re going to learn from that. Ole Miss has traditionally had back-end bullpen guys with dominating stuff, and we saw that tonight.”

Taylor Broadway picked up the win in relief for Ole Miss, throwing 2 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one run on one walk with four strikeouts.

Schulz was the only Warhawk with two hits, while DeSimone was the only Warhawk with two RBIs.

Elko hit a double and a triple for Ole Miss. He was the only player with two hits for the Rebels.

ULM and Ole Miss wrap up the midweek set at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. For tickets, call 318-342-HAWK or visit ULMWarhawks.com. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.