The Colonels’ baseball team grabbed two of three games on the road to clinch the series win against Louisiana-Monroe this weekend in Southland Conference action.
With the victory, the Colonels (18-17, 4-8 SLC) knocked off one of the Southland Conference’s top-ranked teams in Louisiana-Monroe (19-11, 8-3 SLC).
Although being 12-7 at home this season and 6-8 away, the Colonels said they are happy to steal some victories on opponents’ turf.
“They were the first place team in the conference. It is big anytime you can win a series on the road against the number one team in the conference,” B.D. Parker, head baseball coach, said.
“Consequently, we won two games and had a chance to win three. But we were able to gain some ground to putting ourselves in the tournament and our kids played well.”
Throughout the series, Parker said the pitching staff continued their excellent play. Senior pitcher Matt Overman, sophomore Robbie Hebert and junior Mike Prejean each took the mound this weekend.
“This weekend, we went out and pitched very well. We had all three starters who were outstanding this weekend, and the only guy who came out of the bullpen in relief was senior Beau Lambert. Lambert was outstanding as well,” Parker said.
In the first game, Hebert struck out two and allowed five hits as the Colonels defeated ULM 9-3.
With the victory, Hebert picked up his third win of the season by pitching six innings and giving up three runs against a ULM team that is fourth in the league in runs batted in.
“Every time Robbie pitches, he gives us a chance to win the ballgame,” Parker said.
For the contest, the Colonels scored nine runs on 15 hits and committed one error, while the Indians scored three runs on six hits.
Senior outfielder Brad Dantonio and junior infielder David Tano each went 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Colonels at the plate.
In the second game, Overman struck out six on the mound as the Colonels defeated ULM 5-4.
Overman, who is the Southland Conference leader in victories, pitched a complete game giving up 11 hits and four runs.
“Matt had a good weekend, and he goes out and throws with a lot of confidence every game,” Parker said.
For the contest, the Colonels scored five runs on 11 hits with one error and ULM scored four runs off of 11 hits.
Junior infielder Scott Wearne led the Colonels at the plate going 3-for-3 with a double and a run scored.
In the final game of the series, Prejean struck out four and gave up two hits as the Colonels fell to ULM 4-2.
The game was called in the eighth inning due to a thunderstorm in the Monroe area Sunday.
Parker said the main reason the Colonels lost to ULM was because of two costly errors.
“We hurt ourselves Sunday by not taking good care of the ball. Timely hitting was also a negative because we scored only two runs off of ten hits Sunday. Our offense needs to be more productive than that,” Parker said.
Junior infielder Jeremy Helton led the Colonels at the bat going 3-for-4 and scoring one run. Senior infielder Chuck Hickman, who went 0-for-4, ended his hitting streak at 20 games.
Parker said he is pleased with the recent performance of Prejean. Prejean pitched five innings in a 6-2 loss to the number 10 ranked Louisiana State University last weekend.
“Mike has come on strong. He threw well at LSU the other night, and at Monroe, he takes a no-hitter into the sixth. He pitched well enough for us to win,” Parker said.
The Colonels will continue their season Friday at 6:30 p.m. in a three-game series as they head west to Lake Charles to take on McNeese.