ULM (23-21) baseball hosted James Madison University (18-24) this past weekend at Lou St. Amant Field. After a long weekend, JMU bested ULM in the series 2-1.
In game one, the Warhawks, keeping their trend, came out of the game hot with two runs scored, in the first and third inning respectfully, taking an early 2-0 lead and setting the tone for the series. This tone wouldn’t be well received by JMU, as they pounded six runs on the Warhawks, all in the fourth inning.
They continued this beating in the seventh inning, putting three more runs on the board and making the score 2-9, JMU. ULM tried to answer in the eighth inning, with one run scored by Kade Dupont, an RBI from Garrett Wiethorn, making the score 3-9. But that would be all the offense that we would see from the Warhawks, with JMU tacking on two more runs in the ninth, ending the game at 3-11.
Game two told a different story from the previous one. This time, JMU struck first with one run in the first inning. Then the game became stagnant until the fifth inning when Wiethorn got two more RBIs, scoring Jake Haggard and Dupont, making the score 2-1, Warhawks.
The sixth inning featured most of the action, as JMU retook the lead in the top of the inning with a three-run homer, making the score 2-4. At the bottom of the inning, however, a string of three singles from Haggard, Dupont and Weithorn drove in four runs, allowing ULM to retake the lead, 6-4.
The rest of the game held no offensive action, letting ULM come away with the win and evening the series at 1-1.
The last game of the series saw straight dominance from JMU. The first three innings had one run scored in each, allowing JMU to take an early 0-3 lead. The fifth inning saw action from both teams. JMU started it off with a homerun, scoring two, then another single to add one more run, making the score 0-6. At the bottom of the inning, the Warhawks finally got on the board after yet another Weithorn RBI, putting the score at 1-6.
In the seventh inning, this time it was Weithorn scoring off of a Davis Mauzy single through the left infield. This made the score 2-6, but the little momentum that ULM had was quickly erased in the ninth, when JMU added four more runs to put the cherry on top. This ended the game at 2-10, and the series at 1-2.
The Warhawks have lost the last four series to conference opponents. ULM still stands in the middle of the pack in conference rankings, tied with four other teams. This is not a bad season by any means, but the biggest issue for the Warhawks has been inconsistency with pitching. There are just too many walks and passed ball errors for the team to win the pitching battle every game. This also leads to blowup innings that they can’t recover from in the following innings. The team has had many recent games where they’ve given up 10 or more runs. When a team is rarely dominant on the mound, its ceiling gets capped pretty low.
The Warhawks have played in tight games and even won some of them, but they can’t finish most of the close games. This keeps them from winning most series.
The offense is also very inconsistent. They do have several guys batting .330+, but when a team has games where it goes scoreless for eight innings, there is a huge issue. They do have games where they will put up 10 or more runs, but the next night, it’ll be one or two.
A big reason for all of this could be the fact that they are relying on freshmen and first-year contributors who are producing early. This could lead to many flashes of upside, but it also leads to a lot of inconsistencies. In short, ULM is too good to be bad, but they are also too inconsistent to compete with the top of the conference.
The Warhawks will play their next game at home against the in-state rival, Louisiana Tech. The game will start at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the 28th.
