Warhawks break through late, take series from UIW, 7-1

MONROE, La. – A four-run rally with two outs in the seventh inning, featuring a pair of bases loaded walks and Shawn Dalton Weatherbee’s 2-RBI double, broke a 1-1 deadlock as ULM went on to the 7-1 win over UIW to win its first weekend series of the season Sunday at Lou St. Amant Field.

It marked ULM’s first series win since taking both games from App State on April 6-8, 2023, in Boone, North Carolina.

“It’s been a while since we’ve won a weekend,” ULM head coach Michael Federico said. “It’s the first one for us with this new group this year, and I’m super excited for them.

“That’s four wins in one week. I’ll take that every chance we possibly can. It was a tough week with two midweek road games and then to be able to pitch the way we did pretty much the entire week and finish it off today was awesome. It was just nice to see their faces smiling with the success that they had today.”

With the game tied 1 after the third inning, neither team mustered much of a scoring threat until the seventh inning. Jayson Zmejkoski led off the inning with a single to center, and advanced to third on a one-out double by Hasani Johnson. Colby Lunsford drew a two-out walk to load the bases. Michelle Artzberger battled to a 3-2 count before drawing a walk to force in Zmejkoski for the 2-1 lead. Jake Haggard also worked a 3-2 count before drawing a walk to bring in Johnson to go up 3-1. The big blow came from Weatherbee’s 2-RBI double down the right field line to plate Lunsford and Artzberger, giving ULM a 5-1 advantage.

UIW looked poised to answer in the top of the eighth inning, put two runners on base, but Aiden Haynes struck out JD Gregson swinging to end the threat.

The Warhawks added insurance in the bottom half of the inning as Hasani Johnson connected for a 2-run home run, the first of his career, to put ULM up 7-1.

Haynes worked around a pair of baserunners in the ninth to nail down the win.

UIW took the early lead in the top of the first inning as Ryan Scott hit a two-out RBI single to score Rob Liddington for the 1-0 lead.

ULM didn’t answer until the bottom of the third when Johnson led off with a single and moved up to second on Lunsford’s ground out for the second out of the inning. Artzberger followed with an RBI single back through the middle to bring in Johnson, knotting the game at 1.

Johnson had three hits and two RBIs to lead ULM, while Artzberger and Weatherbee had two hits and two RBIs apiece. Scott paced UIW with three hits.

“I just trusted (hitting) Coach (Kyle) Kilgo’s plan, sticking to the approach,” Johnson said. “All of our training has led us and been able to prepare us for this moment.”

On the mound, Trey Lindsay (1-1) earned his first win of the season for the Warhawks, throwing three scoreless innings with one hit, one walk and one strikeout. Justin Robinson threw a career-high four innings in the start, giving up one run on four hits with five strikeouts. Brandt Corley recorded two strikeouts with one hit in the eighth inning, while Haynes recorded the final four outs, with one hit, one walk and two strikeouts.

“We knew coming into it that they could get after it with the bat and that they were going to get their swings off,” Lindsay said. “We had a plan and we trusted (pitching coach Ryan McClaran) and what he prepared for us. We went out there and we executed really well today and came away with the win.”

Adam Byrd (0-1) took the loss for UIW, allowing four runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts over 2 2/3 innings.

ULM visits former Sun Belt Conference foe Little Rock at 6 p.m. Tuesday.