ULM baseball, in the midst of a seven-game home stand, took on Western Illinois for its second full series of the season on Feb. 27- Mar. 1. After a fun few days and a lot of scoring, the Warhawks would end up on top, going 3-0 for the weekend.
In the first game, after a very hot start from the Warhawks, they kept adding on until the last inning, finishing the game at 12-5. In the first, it was all ULM, scoring four right out of the gate. En route to the first four points, Bryce Blaser posted a single, and Sutton Lewis hit a double.
The game would remain decently stagnant until the fourth inning, when ULM and WIU traded runs. Then, in the fifth, Dayne Wray sent a deep fly ball to left field for his second home run of the season. The Warhawks added two more runs that same inning with a sacrifice fly from Bryce Blaser.
WIU made an attempt to come back in the seventh, but it was just too little, too late. They scored four, making it a six-point game, until the Warhawks tacked on one more run to round the game out at 12-5.
In the second game, after a couple of mid-game runs from WIU, ULM pulled away for their second win of the weekend, 11-4.
After the two opponents traded points in the first, ULM tried to start its pull-away in the second by scoring two, courtesy of Davis Mauzy and Kade Dupont. WIU responded in the third with another two of their own.
The game was steady until the seventh, when Jake Haggard homered to deep left field for his third of the season. This started the pull-away from ULM, and in the eighth, after a series of hits from Garrett Wiethorn, Dupont and Haggard, the Warhawks would finish the game out winning 11-4.
The third game would be the closest out of the three, only being a four-point game to end, 11-7.
The game started out all WIU, being 0-4 before ULM got on the board. When the Warhawks did score, they didn’t stop, going on a 9-0 run. In the third, a couple of singles from Wray and Haggard put two runs up for ULM, making the score 2-4.
In the fifth, the Warhawks blew it open, starting the inning with a double from Haggard, then immediately followed by a home run from Wray for his fourth of the season. After a few more hits from Zach White, Blaser and Dupont, the Warhawks rounded the inning at 9-4.
The last few innings were back-and-forth, with each team going on two- to three-point runs and keeping the game interesting. A late try for a comeback was short-lived for WIU, ending the game at 11-7 and keeping ULM on a six-game win streak.
Days later, the team lost its streak to Southeastern, losing by 10 points for both games.
Correction: An earlier version of this story indicated that Kamryn Link played for ULM. Link plays for WIE.
