ULM wins two to reach tourney title game

TROY — A day that started at the break of dawn ended just after sunset for the seventh-seeded University of Louisiana at Monroe baseball team.

In between, the Warhawks beat second-seeded Western Kentucky twice, 11-3 and 4-2, and earned a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship game against Middle Tennessee at 10 a.m. today.

“It’s exciting, coming in here as the No. 7 seed with all these upsets,” center fielder Matt Laird said after the Warhawks (32-26) eliminated a team that had beaten them four straight times this season before Saturday’s games.

“Our team, all year we’ve battled back from adversity. That’s just what we do. We’ve got to continue to do it tomorrow.”
ULM opened the tournament Wednesday with a 14-4 loss to Western Kentucky. That extended their losing streak to Sun Belt opponents to eight games.

But their bats got hot and carried the Warhawks through the losers bracket. They stayed alive with a 13-8 win over South Alabama, routed Troy 16-1 and erupted for eight runs in the eighth to rally past the Hilltoppers 11-3 in a rain-delayed game on Saturday morning.

The climb remained uphill. Western Kentucky started SBC Pitcher of the Year Matt Hightower. ULM coach Jeff Schexnaider countered with junior Corey Brown — who was making his first start of the season.

“I was just trying to throw strikes and get ground balls. That was the game plan,” said Brown, who gave up four hits, two runs and four walks in two innings of relief in WKU’s 14-4 victory on Wednesday. “They hit me pretty good the first game.”

But ULM scratched across three runs in the top of the first to take command. A single, a walk and a hit batter loaded the bases with nobody out. Matt Collins singled in a run. With one out, Ryan McMillan drove in a run with an infield single. Nick Wade made it 3-0 with an RBI groundout.

“That was big. It gave me a lot of confidence, let me throw more strikes, to get in and get ahead,” Brown said.

The ULM starter said he wanted to go five strong innings, but pitched into the eighth before leaving after a Hightower home run cut the Warhawks lead to 4-2 and a one-out walk brought the tying run to the plate. Drew Graham pitched the final 1 2/3 innings to preserve the win.

“I threw 122 pitches,” Brown said. “I haven’t thrown that much the whole year.”

“It was a great day,” Schexnaider said. “It was a rough end to the year. We were hoping to get in the tournament. We felt we had some pitching depth and tonight it showed with Corey. It was probably his best game of the year. The guys believe right now and hopefully we can carry it into tomorrow.”

While the Warhawks were staggering at the end of the season, they showed potential at the start.

“We had a streak like this early in the year for about a month,” the coach said. “We beat teams like Arkansas, Mississippi State and we were feeling good. Some things didn’t go our way in the season. Now some things are going our way.”

Hightower pitched into the fourth inning and finished 3-for-4 at the plate with the homer in the eighth. Relievers Evan Teague and Bart Carter held ULM to two hits over the final 5 2/3 innings.

Laird made a nice play in the ninth in center field. WKU’s Matt Payton drew a leadoff walk against Graham. Jake Wells hit a fly ball to deep center field that Laird caught. He then fired a strike to second base to nail Payton, who inexplicably tried to tag up on the play.

“When the ball came off the bat I had to track it down,” Laird said. “After that I heard everybody say he’s tagging, he’s tagging. I knew I had to make a perfect throw. We got lucky there.”

Graham then walked Jeremy Coleman but struck out Jared Andreoli to end the game.

ULM 11, Western Kentucky 3: Perry Smith went 3-for-4 with an RBI single in an eight-run eighth inning, a tournament record-tying fifth double in the fifth inning and a home run in the seventh inning as the Warhawks forced another game against second-seeded Western Kentucky.

“Everything went our way,” Schexnaider said. “The wind took a ball into fair territory. They thought it was foul. I thought it was foul. But things are starting to go our way.”

Ben Soignier, the starting shortstop, earned the win in relief of starter Keith Christensen, who worked into the seventh inning, and Josh Miller.

WKU starter Shane Cameron was in command of the Warhawks for more than six innings. But ULM, trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the seventh, tied the game on Smith’s homer and Matt Collins single to left.

The Warhawks blasted J.B. Paxson, the third WKU pitcher, for six runs as the floodgates opened in the eighth. Paxson lasted two-thirds of an inning. Chad Adcock got the final out and gave up two runs, one earned.