MONROE, La. -- ULM looks to build off a second place
finish in the Arkansas Invitational after qualifying for the fourth seed. ULM earned a big victory over Arkansas Sunday before falling in the championship game to Murray State. The
Warhawks have their work cut out for them once again this weekend as they travel to Natichitoches, La. for Northwestern State's Lady
Demon Invitational.
First, ULM plays the host Lady Demons in NSU's home opener.
The Lady Demon's come in at 13-2 and have won eight in a row. ULM has two games
against Louisiana Tech. The Techsters are 5-8 and has lost four straight. In
between the two games against the neighbors to the west, ULM takes on a 1-8
Alcorn State squad.
Freshman Faith Bohack
is tied for fourth in the conference in doubles while sophomore Mackenzie
Miller's two triples still tie for tops in the league. Miller ranks third in the SBC with seven
stolen bases.
LAST
TIME OUT: ULM
went 2-3 in the Arkansas Invitational and finished second as the fourth seed.
The Warhawks knocked off the top-seed Razorbacks thanks to a clutch home run
from sophomore Alexis Cacioppo and equally
impressive pitching from Haylie Wilson in relief. ULM also earned a 2-1 victory
over Saint Louis in Fayetteville, Ark.
SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS:
-
Northwestern
State (Mar. 1, 12:00 p.m.) is enters the
weekend at 13-2, propelled by an eight game winning streak. Tara McKenney enters the weekend
hitting .439. NSU will play its home opener against the Warhawks. Cassandra Barefield is hitting .350
with three home runs. She is second on the team in slugging pct. with a .625
and has a team-high 15 RBIs. In the circle, Kaylee Guidry, Kylie Roos and Brooke
Boening split the majority of the work. Guidry leads the team with a 1.49
ERA while Roos has struck out 35. As a team, NSU is hitting .335. The Lady
Demons have wins over Western Kentucky, Mississippi State, Southern Miss and
Louisiana Tech this season.
-
Louisiana
Tech (Mar. 1, 2:30 p.m/Mar. 2. 5:30 p.m.) is
5-8 entering the weekend, but as always, one can toss out records when these
old rivals square off. The Lady Techsters are led by Kristen Miller, who is hitting .425 with 17 hits while Erin Kipp and Amanda Krueger each have nine RBIs. In the circle, Michelle Jones has seen the majority of
the action with a 3-4 record with 55.2 innings pitched. She has 41 strikeouts
and has walked 25 and has held opposing batters to a .198 avg. Meanwhile, Erin Kipp is 2-2 in six appearances, including
three starts. Janna Frandrup has
appeared in six contests and made one start.
-
Alcorn State (Mar. 2, 10:00 a.m.) has
struggled so far this season. The Lady Braves are paced by Hannah Vesper's .286 batting average. Vesper has six hits,
including five doubles. Chqueta Givens
has a team-high three RBIs. In the circle, Chamara
Moore is the go-to pitcher. She has thrown 23.2 innings, striking out 13.
She was the pitcher of record in the Lady Braves' win over Kentucky State. Deanna
Rancillo has made four appearances in the circle. All four pitchers on
Alcorn's roster have made at least two starts.
WARHAWKS
ONLINE: While ULM is on the road, you can
follow live stats at ULMWarhawks.com, get updates via Facebook (Warhawks) and
through Twitter (@ULMWarhawks).
WARHAWKS
ON THE ROAD: ULM travels a grand total of 9,642
miles this season. The majority of those miles come between Feb. 15 and Mar. 14
with ULM's next 16 contests on the road. ULM's Friday matchup with Arkansas is
the first true road game of the season for the Warhawks.
BASE
THIEVES: The Warhawks finished the 2012 campaign
with 105 stolen bases, the second highest total in the Sun Belt and also a
school record. Base runners were caught just 20 times last season. Meanwhile,
ULM allowed just 44 steals on 56 attempts-the third lowest in the league. So
far in 2013, ULM is 22-of-29 in stolen bases. Sophomore Mackenzie Miller leads the team with seven.
PROGRAM
MILESTONE: ULM needs nine victories in 2013 to win
its 800th game as a program.
OLD
RIVALRIES RENEWED: ULM has played a total of 208 games
against Louisiana Tech and Northwestern State. The Warhawks and Lady Demons are
former conference foes and games against the Techsters used to be annual occasions.
Both all-time series date back to 1980.
SALANOA'S
SUCCESS: Senior Janel Salanoa launched her 17th career home run in Las Vegas to
move into sole possession of seventh place on ULM's all-time home runs list.
Her 25th career double, also recorded in Las Vegas, puts her in a tie for ninth
all time. She needs three RBIs to become the fifth player in program history to
reach the 100 RBI-milestone. She entered 2013 ranked ninth on ULM's career
batting avg. list.
CONSISTENT
CACIOPPO: Alexis
Cacioppo is riding a six-game hitting streak
into the weekend. She extended the streak in dramatic fashion last Saturday
with the eventual game-winning hit-a home run-against Arkansas in the top of
the eighth.
SUPERB
vs. THE SWAC: ULM earned its 50th win over the SWAC
with an 8-0 win over Grambling in the Mardi Gras Classic.
AT
THE HELM: Rosemary
Holloway-Hill begins her 29th season as head coach.
She is 10 wins away from winning her 800th game as a head coach at any level.
She is joined in the dugout by Associate Head Coach Sara Vogt. This is Vogt's second season in the role and fifth
overall at ULM.
FAMILIAR
FACE: Back in January, ULM head coach Rosemary Holloway-Hill announced the
addition of Lindsay Rittenhouse-Becton
to the staff as the Warhawks' pitching coach. Rittenhouse-Becton graduated from
ULM in 2008 as the school's all-time saves leader.
VETS
& ROOKIES: The 2013 Warhawks feature 10 returning
players and nine newcomers, including eight freshmen. Four of the eight
freshmen were high school teammates at Hahnville (La.) High School, where
together they were state champions in 2011 and runners-up in 2010 and 2012.
Three other Warhawks have played on state championship squads.
MAKING
THE GRADE: ULM Softball posted a 3.478 GPA in the
Fall 2012 semester. It was the highest team GPA among all ULM sports teams. The
Warhawks 2011-12 team GPA ranked 41st in the Division I, according to the NFCA.
That was one spot higher than Stanford and just below 2013 opponent St. Louis.
PRESEASON
PICKS: The Warhawks were picked to finish
eighth in the Sun Belt by the conference head coaches. UL-Lafayette was
unanimously picked to repeat as Sun Belt champions.
PRESEASON
AWARDS: Senior 1B Janel Salanoa was named to the CollegeSportsMadness.com All-Sun
Belt second team earlier this year.
QUOTABLE:
"I feel like this team belongs, and you'll see new and
exciting things happen from them." - Rosemary
Holloway-Hill on the 2013 Warhawks.
