With a couple key wins under its belt and coming off a sweep of Alabama A&M, ULM baseball found itself face-to-face against Ole Miss, the 2022 national champions. ULM (11-6; 0-1 Sun Belt Conference) hasn’t hosted a beastly opponent like Ole Miss (14-5; 1-0 Southeastern Conference) since March of 2022, in which they played a series of two games—Ole Miss won both times with scores of 10-2 and 11-1 respectively.

Two years later, ULM sought to flip the script. 

Ole Miss came up with nothing in the first three innings and couldn’t connect with the ball as players struck out left and right due to pitchers Chipper Menard and Easton Winfield. ULM’s quick two runs in the bottom of the first generated a roar from Warhawk fans in Lou St. Amant field.

When asked about Winfield and Artzberger’s performance, Federico had nothing but admiration for his players.

“[Artzberger] is a super player. He’s so dynamic for us from an offensive standpoint but also from the defensive side of it.” Federico said. “[Winfield]’s dynamic. He’s got power and speed at the same time. He’s young, and he’s still learning the game at this level.”

Ole Miss found its footing by the top of the fourth and laid down some hits. The score climbed together for a long fourth inning.

The fifth through eighth ended in ties; the game seemed poised to go into extra innings until the top of the ninth.

 The Warhawks’ lead at the beginning ran short as Ole Miss realized it should’ve been named Ole Hit; the Rebels couldn’t stop while the Warhawks lost traction.

This last second effort won Ole Miss the game, a 5-3 win that left both teams two and a half hours of sweat to scrub off.

Federico mentioned his opinion on ULM’s current streak and how he wants his team to act one game to the next.

 “Baseball is one of those long seasons, and you got to enjoy the wins when they come, and you got to move on,” Federico said. “You got to learn from the losses and get ready for the next game… and try not to hold onto [the loss] for too long because the season, it’ll get away from you quick if you start to do that.”