Box Score MONROE, La. ? Louisiana-Monroe (9-4, 1-0) rode a 3-for-5, three RBI day at the plate from Bo Bowman to an 8-1 win over UALR (7-8, 0-1) in the two teams' Sun Belt Conference opener. The Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second but never scored again en route to their fifth-straight loss.
ULM's Bucky Chandler (1-0) scattered three hits and struck out seven batters over 6.0 innings to pick up his first win of the season. Jared Jennings recorded the save by closing out the game with 3.0 scoreless innings of work. The Warhawks outhit UALR 12-to-6 on Friday, with seniors Brian Asbill (3-for-4) and Ryan Gotcher (2-for-5) accounting for five of the Trojans' six hits.
Asbill hit one of his two doubles in the second inning and came around to score on a fielding error in right field to give UALR a brief 1-0 lead. The Warhawks responded by plating four runs in the third and three in the seventh to take a commanding 7-1 lead.
ULM loaded the bases with no outs after a double by Brent Smith, a walk by Ben Soignier and a single by Andy Jones. Bowman followed with a 2-run single to put the Warhawks on top for good, 2-1. ULM tacked on two more runs off a sacrifice fly by Josh Morrison and a two-out double by Dexter Fontenot. The Warhawks pushed across three more runs in the bottom of the fourth off RBI singles by Soignier and Bowman, and a run-scoring double from Morrison.
Junior David Klumpp (1-1) entered the game ranked fourth in the Sun Belt with a 1.78 earned run average, but surrendered nine hits and seven runs (all earned) over 3.2 innings of work. Junior Shawn McElyea came on in relief of Klumpp and worked 2.1 innings with three hits and one run allowed. Freshman Gavin Gray closed out the game by holding the Warhawks hitless over 2.0 scoreless innings of relief.
The two teams return to action with the second game of the series tomorrow at 6 p.m.
