Warhawks jump on top early, hold off UTA to take series

Monroe, La. – ULM used a pair of runs in the second inning and four more in the fourth to build a 6-0 lead, cruising to a 6-3 win over UT Arlington Sunday afternoon at Warhawk Field.

With the victory, ULM (22-25 overall, 10-13 Sun Belt) wins a second straight Sun Belt Conference series two games to one. The Warhawks have won six of their last eight games, while UTA (29-19, 15-8) has lost seven of their last eight games.

The win moves ULM back into fifth place in the West Division of the Sun Belt, one half-game ahead of the Ragin’ Cajuns, and into 10th place overall in the conference. The standings continue to tighten up, as the Warhawks are within two-and-a-half games of six other teams with six games remaining. The top 10 teams in the conference, regardless of division, qualify for the SBC Tournament in Conway, S.C.

“That was a big series for us,” head coach Michael Federico said. “Every game is important and you’re starting to see it even more so now. It’s kind of all jumbled up there a little bit. If we can do what we’re capable of doing these next two weekends, there’s no telling where we could actually finish. It’s going to be interesting. There’s a lot of pressure on a lot of teams. There’s a lot at stake for every one of us.”

ULM struck first on Sunday. In the bottom of the second inning, Brendan Jordan was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a single by Masen Prososki. Logan Wurm then reached on an error by UTA second baseman Zac Cook, scoring Jordan for the 1-0 lead. Braedon Barrett followed with a sacrifice fly, scoring Prososki, to put the Warhawks up 2-0 through two innings.

ULM added four more runs in the fourth inning. Ryan Humeniuk hit a solo home run to lead off the inning. Prososki connected for a double down the left field line to pick up his sixth multi-hit game in the last seven contests. After Wurm walked, Barrett hit an RBI single to center to bring home Prososki for a 4-0 lead. Joey Jordan walked to load the bases. After Trent Tingelstad popped out, Chad Bell picked up his second hit of the day, a 2-RBI single to left to push the lead to 6-0 through four innings.

UTA answered with a pair of runs in the fifth inning, with one coming home on an RBI single by Conner Aube and another on an error, chasing starting pitcher Kayleb Sanderson from the game. Kolton Childress came on and forced Anthony Dominguez to ground out to end the inning.

“It was nice to have Childress,” Federico said. “I wanted to go to him. I told him earlier in the game ‘you’re going to be the first one up,’ because he’s a senior. I told him when he came in there, ‘hey man, we need a senior moment right now.’ They had momentum. We had the great inning and then, for some reason Sanderson has had that a couple times where he struggled a little bit after a long inning. I don’t know what we have to do to keep him on. He’s such a laid back kid. But, we got out of it.”

Childress gave up a run in the sixth inning when Boone Montgomery reached on an error, bringing home Will Olson. However, he induced an inning-ending double play in the seventh inning before ending his outing by issuing a lead off walk in the eighth inning.

Childress (3-2) picked up the win, throwing 2 1/3 innings out of the bullpen, giving up an unearned run on two hits with one walk. Conner Deeds pitched the final two innings for his second save, giving up no runs and no hits while walking one batter.

Federico said Childress showed his development when the defense made a couple mistakes behind him.

“I thought Childress really, really handled himself with the utmost maturity right there,” Federico said. “Last year, he would have folded right there. We don’t make a couple plays defensively. We had two balls that really went between guys’ legs. Then we dropped the fly ball in foul territory. He just kept pumping it in there. I was hoping he would have got the lead off guy. We were going to Deeds regardless. I was trying to get him to get the leadoff guy and ended up walking him there. Deeds came in and did a great job.”

Bell had two hits and two RBIs, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games. Prososki also had two hits with a walk and two runs scored.

“I struggled in the early going of the season,” Prososki said. “I’ve been sticking to it with my coaches and they’ve been really helping me in the cages. I’m just trying to get on base by all means.”

Prososki also started a pair of key double plays, one in the seventh inning and another in the eighth, ending the UTA offensive momentum.
“A double play is a real stab in the back,” Prososki said. “I was just happy we were able to get two there and get in the dugout.”

Wurm also broke out of a slump for the Warhawks, reaching base three times, including a single in the sixth inning. The base hit broke an 0-for-24 skid dating back to April 23.

“I’ve had a rough last two weekends,” Wurm said. “Last night I went home and I told Kolton Childress, ‘you’re cutting my hair.’ I texted (director of operations Stephen Morrison) and I was like ‘you’re changing my walkup song.’ I met up yesterday with Coach (Brandon Belanger) and I was like ‘we got to change something. Something’s just not clicking.’ We changed up a little something in the cage yesterday and I felt like I was seeing the ball a lot better today. I’m just going to build off that for these last few weekends.”

The Warhawks take the midweek off this week for final exams before returning to play on Friday to open a three-game Sun Belt series at Troy.

“I’m proud of our guys,” Federico said. “UTA is a very good team, 70 RPI and they’re second in the league. It’s huge for us in building momentum for this tail end. I keep telling people no one is going to want to play us if we can do what we’re capable of doing. We’ve got a chance. We’re kind of a unique team. I don’t think we really know everything that’s at stake because there’s so many that have never been in those situations. Jacob Barton and Joey Jordan are the only ones that have ever played in a conference tournament. There’s a lot of newness that’s out there for everyone of us. We need to find a way to get in there.”

First pitch at Troy is set for 6 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.