Nathan Wood and the South Alabama bullpen made an especially long Senior Day a memorable one at Stanky Field on Sunday.

Jaguar relievers shut out visiting Louisiana-Monroe over the final nine innings of an extra-inning marathon, setting the stage for Wood’s walk-off RBI single in the bottom of the 13th. The 4-3 victory gave South Alabama (39-22 overall, 13-14 Sun Belt Conference) two of three in the series and kept them in the thick of the race for a postseason berth.

South Alabama is tied with three other teams for seventh place in the Sun Belt standings heading into the final week of the regular season, with the top 10 earning a spot in the conference tournament. The Jaguars finish up with three games at first-place Louisiana beginning Friday.

“This is huge for us,” Wood said. “It gives us good momentum going into the next week. That’s the most important week of the year. We seem to be saying that every week, but it really is the most important week of the year next week. It’s never easy to win a series, period. So to get it down is awesome.”

The Warhawks (21-30, 8-9) proved to be a tough out all weekend, and looked for most of Sunday like they might escape Mobile with a series victory. The Jaguars were held scoreless over the first five innings, not getting on the board until Lucas Ismaili’s solo homer made it 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth.

South Alabama added a run in the seventh when Brennan Holt was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, then tied the scores on Will Turner’s RBI single in the ninth. The Jaguars left the bases loaded in both innings however, sending the game to extras.

South Alabama starter Carson Swilling didn’t make it out of the second inning after his velocity was down from last week, though his bullpen picked him up in a major way. Gant Starling — normally the Jaguars’ closer — allowed two runs in 3 1/3 innings, but Logan Wash, Grant Wood (no relation to Nathan) and Zach Willingham hung nothing but zeros in the final eight.

Willingham was especially nasty, striking out six with one walk and allowing just one hit in three innings. The junior left-hander retired the Warhawks in order in the 13th, including a pair of strikeouts.

“Their weekend splits were noticeably worse against left-handed pitching,” South Alabama coach Mark Calvi said. “So we actually kept an extra left-hander in the pen this weekend. I just stayed with the hot hand and Willingham was the guy out there. He was absolutely phenomenal. The whole bullpen was today.”

Zach Shaw, the last of six ULM pitchers, was nearly as dominant as Willingham. The right-hander held the Jaguars scoreless in the 10th, 11th and 12th, but walked Tyler Borges to start the bottom of the 13th.

Rett Johnson bunted Borges over to second, bringing up Nathan Wood. The junior-college transfer — who entered the game in the eighth after starting catcher Duncan Mathews was pinch-hit for in the seventh — bounced a 2-0 pitch from Shaw up the middle to score Borges with the game- and series-winning run.

“That was awesome, man,” Wood said. “That was a long one today and I didn’t even start. … He left a fastball over the middle, and I just pounded it up the middle. He struck me out on three pitches the first time and I saw all he had to offer. I knew he couldn’t beat me again.

“I just put the ball in play, which is what the situation calls for.”

As did the entire series, Sunday’s game featured its share of bizarre and unusual plays. South Alabama’s Hunter Donaldson tried the give the Jaguars the win in the bottom of the ninth with a squeeze bunt, but ULM reliever Carson Orton fielded the ball bare-handed and threw home for the force out.

But the topper came in the top of the inning, after ULM’s Matt Abshire drew a leadoff walk. Jake Haggard then tried to bunt him over, but popped it up.

Rather than catch the ball in the air for the easy out, Borges let it bounce and threw to first to force Haggard. The Jaguars then got Abshire in a rundown, but dropped the ball while making a tag.

Abshire thought he was out, however, and over-ran second base. South Alabama first baseman Micah Morgan scrambled over and picked up the loose ball and tagged Abshire for the second out.

“Borges did that on his own,” Calvi said. “… He did the right thing throwing it to first base because then we had a tag play. We got into a run down. … Haggard popped it up and then stopped after 15 feet, but Borges reacted immediately. Luckily, Micah wasn’t crashing too hard (from first base) and he got back to the bag or it might have been a different fate.

“But that was just smart baseball. Borges is a savvy guy; he’s going to make a heck of a coach one day.”

First pitch Tuesday at Southeastern Louisiana is set for 6 p.m.