MONROE, La. - Ben Johnson's 6.2 innings of work set the stage for the Georgia Southern baseball team to take down the ULM Warhawks, 12-4, in game one of the three-game set at Lou St. Amant Field on Friday night.
The Warhawks (20-26, 7-15 SBC) took to the board first on a sacrifice fly, taking a small 1-0 lead after the first frame.
Georgia Southern (24-21, 13-9 SBC) would tie the game in the top of the second inning with an RBI-fielder's choice by
Cade Parker, scoring
Sean White. Southern would then take the lead when
Josh Tate's RBI-single fell between two ULM fielders, bringing home
T.J. McKenzie.
Kent Schmidt would finish off the inning with a line-out sac fly to left field, bringing Parker home and setting the Eagles up with a 3-1 lead.
Sean Smith led off the top of the fourth inning with his first Division I home run, a 365-foot shot to right-center field to put the Eagles up 4-1. Schmidt's RBI-single to score McKenzie, Blancato's fielder's choice sac bunt to score Parker, and
Jarrett Brown's RBI-single to score Schmidt put the Eagles up 7-1 after four.
ULM fought back in the bottom of the fifth inning, cutting into the lead with a RBI-single of their own to only trail by five runs at 7-2. In the bottom of the seventh, a two-out two-run single halved the lead at 8-4, but the ULM batter was thrown out at second trying to stretch out the play.
The Eagles responded with four unanswered runs in the next two innings, with a
JD Kaiser sac fly to plate Schmidt and a White two-RBI single to score Blancato and Brown in the top of the eighth, and a ULM dropped fly in the top of the ninth to plate Tate and Schmidt, cementing the final at 12-4.
Johnson earned his fourth win with 6.2 innings of work, allowing four runs on eight hits, striking out three in 97 pitches. Cam Barlow took the loss after giving up six runs on seven hits in just three innings.
Schmidt and White led the Eagles offensively with 3-for-4 nights. Schmidt was a run-generating machine, with three RBI and three runs of his own on the night. Tate and McKenzie also had multiple hits on the night.
UP NEXT
The series will be settled on Saturday afternoon, as Southern and ULM will play a doubleheader due to anticipated weather in Monroe on Sunday. The twinbill starts at 2 p.m., with game two taking place 45 minutes after game one.
