THIBODAUX, La. - Fighting Leatherneck baseball opened the 2014 season at the Carmel Inn Showdown on Thursday afternoon (Feb. 20). The Leathernecks fell to Louisiana-Monroe in the opener, 6-2, before falling to Nicholls State, 1-0, in the nightcap. 

Louisiana-Monroe 6, Western Illinois 2

The opening game of the 2014 season for the Leathernecks saw ULM take the early lead and never look back on their way to the 6-2 win. The Warhawks held the Leathernecks hitless for the first 5.2 innings of the contest en route to their third victory of the season.

Aaron Michel (0-1) was handed the loss for the Purple & Gold after throwing 4.2 innings with five strikeouts and three earned runs. Chad Miller (1-0) earned his first victory of the season for ULM.

The Warhawks took advantage of a throwing error to score first in the third inning. ULM crossed the plate again in the fourth and twice more in the fifth to go on top 4-0 in the contest.

Western put across one run in the bottom half of the fifth to cut into the lead. Chris Tschida reached on an error and advanced to third on a Matt Risdon single. Tschida later scored his first career run for the Leathernecks on another ULM fielding error.

ULM added two runs in the top half of the ninth inning on a Chet Simoneaux two-run home run over the left field wall. In the bottom half of the ninth, Travis Stafford hit his first career triple for Western and later scored for the final run of the game.

In total, the teams combined for eight total errors in the game. Jameson Henning and Nathan Pollock recorded the other two hits for the Leathernecks. Pollock's single was the first hit of his Leatherneck career.

For the Warhawks, Jacob Stockton finished the game with four hits and three runs scored, while Ross Moore finished with three hits.

Nicholls 2, Western Illinois 1

The second game of the day was a pitching duel, with both teams combining for six hits. Nicholls improved to 2-3 after the victory, while the Leathernecks fall to 0-2 on the young season.

All three runs were scored in the first inning of the game. Erik Maki reached on a walk and advanced to third on a Henning double into left centerfield. Maki crossed the plate for the lone WIU run on a Tanner Glore sacrifice fly to right field.

Nicholls answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first to take the lead for good. Back-to-back walks put two on for the Colonels and a groundout put both runners in scoring position. Tyler Duplantis drove in both runs on a single to centerfield.

Tyler Willman (0-1) picked up the loss after throwing 6.0 innings with two earned runs. The righty struck out two in his first start of the season. Brandon Jackson (1-0) recorded the win for Nicholls after throwing 5.0 innings with two hits and four strikeouts.

The Leathernecks continue action in the Carmel Inn Showdown tomorrow afternoon (Feb. 21) with a single game against Southern Illinois. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. in Thibodaux, La. 

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