Baseball Wins Pitchers Dual Over Louisiana Monroe

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Air Force Academy baseball team came out on the winning end of a pitchers dual with the University of Louisiana Monroe, posting a 1-0 victory Saturday evening, Feb. 16, at LSU's Alex Box Stadium. The Falcons (1-1) used a dynamic senior duo on the mound to snag its first win of the 2019 campaign.

Seniors Matt Hargreaves and Jake Gilbert combined to blank the Warhawks (0-2), the former going the first six innings to earn the win, while the latter went the final three to get the save. Hargreaves only allowed four hits, while striking out four to earn his 12th career win. It was only the second time in his career he has gone six or more innings of shutout ball, the other was a complete game shutout of Tulane in 2017.

As for Gilbert, he only yielded two hits while striking out three to get the second save of his career. In all, the two left nine ULM runners stranded.

At the dish, the Falcons only collected four hits, but the crucial one was an RBI double from senior Colby Brown in the fifth inning. That double was part of a 2-for-2 day, which also included a walk.

The game started slow for each offense, as neither collected a hit until Brown singled in the top of the third. A double play quickly erased any threat, however. ULM's first hit didn't come until the fourth on a two out double, but Hargreaves easily retired the next batter to send it to the fifth.

There, junior Ashton Easley singled with two outs, and promptly stole second to set himself up for Brown. The New Mexico native delivered, doubling to left field and scoring Easley.

With a lead in hand, Hargreaves danced around a hit in the fifth and two base runners in the sixth to get to the seventh. Gilbert then took over after the stretch, and got into a bit of trouble when a leadoff single eventually got to third with two outs. He got a fly out though to end the threat with two to play.

In the bottom of the eighth, a walk didn't advance past first, taking it to the ninth. The Warhawks had another prime opportunity in the ninth, getting runners to first and third with two outs, but a harmless fly out to left field ended the game with the 1-0 tally.

The Falcons will return to the diamond tomorrow afternoon, Feb. 17, when they take on the host LSU Tigers, who came into the season ranked No. 1 in the Coaches Poll. First pitch from Alex Box Stadium is set for 2 p.m.

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