MONROE, La.-Coming off a
three-game sweep of Mississippi Valley State over the weekend, the ULM baseball
is faced with one of its busiest and possibly most challenging weeks of the
season. The Warhawks open the stretch of five games in seven days at No. 1 LSU
on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before they play host Memphis on Wednesday and open Sun
Belt Conference play at defending league champion Middle Tennessee over the weekend.
After playing its first six
games of the season on the road, ULM (5-4) excelled in all three phases of the
game against the Delta Devils in the friendly confines of Warhawk Field. The
Warhawks batted .330 as a team, the pitching staff posted a 2.00 ERA and held
MVSU to a .163 batting average and the ULM defense did not commit an error all
weekend.
Matt Laird led the Warhawks at
the plate batting .500 (7-for-14) with five RBIs and four runs scored. Josh
Gill was 3-for-6 over two starts as the designated hitter, while Perry Smith
and Josh Chappell each batted .364 (4-for-11).
Freshman Judd Edwards leads
ULM batting at a .444 clip for the season with senior Nick Wade right behind
him at .364 with a team-best 10 RBIs and two home runs. As good of a hitter as
Wade is, he is an even better defender. The West Monroe, La., native has
committed just 10 errors over the past three seasons at third base for a .963
fielding percentage. His good defensive play has rubbed off on his teammates as
the Warhawks lead the Sun Belt Conference and rank near the top nationally with
a .985 team fielding percentage.
Senior right-hander Corey
Brown (0-1, 9.64 ERA) will get the start for the Warhawks against the defending
national champions on Tuesday night. Brown started game three at Ole Miss
during the opening weekend of play and limited the Rebels to just two runs over
five innings of work.
LSU is scheduled to counter
with freshman right-hander Michael Reed (0-0. 7.71). The Tigers (11-0) have played
all of their games at Alex Box Stadium this season and lead the nation
averaging 10,529 fans per game. LSU has won 17 straight home games and 26 of
its last 27 games overall.
Wednesday's 6:30 p.m. contest
against Memphis (4-7) will be just the 16th all-time meeting between
the two schools and first since 2000. ULM assistant coach Cory Barton was a
catcher for the Tigers from 2005-06.
ULM will send junior right-hander
Stefan Comeaux (1-0, 11.37) to the bump against Memphis, while the Tigers will
answer with sophomore right-hander Heith Hatfield (1-2, 7.56).
Fans can watch both mid-week
games live in Warhawks All*Access by logging on to ulmwarhawks.com. Both games
will also be broadcast live in northeast Louisiana on 540 AM and worldwide on
the internet at ulmwarhawks.com.
Courtesy: Mack Barham
