SAN MARCOS, Texas – Texas State won the team's first series of the season and the first of conference play, taking down UL Monroe in two of the three games played this weekend. Saturday, the Bobcats won, 5-1, in the opener, but fell, 7-4, in the final game of the weekend.
 
Both Scott Grist and Blake Whitter accounted well for themselves throughout the series. Whitter closed out the first game of the day with three consecutive strikeouts in the ninth and added another one in the final inning of the day. Grist, meanwhile, went eight full innings and only gave up four hits and no earned runs. He walked three and struck out two batters in 112 pitches.
 At the plate, Granger Studdard led the Bobcats on a 3-for-7 day with a run scored. The leading RBI-hitters were Tanner Hill and Cedric Vallieres, both finishing with two apiece. Hill hit his in the first game to give Texas State some breathing room, while Vallieres knocked a two-run homer in a comeback effort. David Paiz also tallied two hits on the day while Luke Sherley, Theodore Hoffman and Colby Targun each added a hit.
 
The Warhawks opened the game with a run in the top of the first inning. The leadoff man reached on an error and ULM's second hitter followed with a double to right centerfield. Keelin Rasch brought in Robbie Podorsky, the runner at third, with a sacrifice fly to put ULM on top early, 1-0.
 
In the second inning, Texas State went ahead in the game. Targun reached on an error and Hill followed with a single to left field. After that, Hoffman earned a walk to load the bases for Sherley. He knocked the first Texas State RBI of the game with a single through the right side. Next, Cory Geisler brought in Hill with a sacrifice fly to put the Bobcats up, 2-1.
 
The Bobcats did damage in the fifth inning, pushing the lead to 5-1. Ben McElroy walked and Studdard followed with a two-out single through the right side. After that, Cody Lovejoy loaded the bases with a walk, and ULM starter Brandon Bell walked Targun with bases loaded for the first run of the inning. Next, Hill plated two runners with a shot to right field to give Texas State some breathing room with a four-run lead. That would be all the Bobcats needed for the win in the first game of the day to clinch the series.
 
The second game started the same way the first did with an early ULM run. In the top of the second, Nathan Pugh led off with a single and took second on a passed ball. Spencer Hemphill knocked a ground-rule double over the left center wall to plate Pugh and put the Warhawks up, 1-0 early. In the fourth inning, UL Monroe added two more runs, one on an RBI and one on a passed ball, to go up 3-0 in the game.
 
In the bottom of the second inning, the Bobcats almost answered in a big way, but left three stranded on a bases loaded strikeout. Texas State almost had another opportunity for a run in the bottom of the fourth. The Bobcats pushed Studdard all the way to third base after he singled. Trey Setzer, the ULM starter, threw a wild pitch and Studdard headed home to take advantage of it. Catcher Spencer Hemphill was able to get the ball back to Setzer covering home in time for the out. The Bobcats wouldn't score in the inning, but busted out in the fifth.
 
Texas State stormed back to tie the game on the bat of Vallieres. Hoffman sent a rocket down the left line for a double, and was able to score later on a ULM error when Geisler put the ball in play. After Geisler, Vallieres knocked his second home run of the season, a two-run shot to tie the game, 3-3.
 
The Warhawks regained the lead with a run in the seventh inning on two hits. Nathan Pugh knocked Kodie Tidwell in for a 4-3 ULM lead late in the game. Danny Springer extended ULM's lead with a solo home run in the eighth to put the Warhawks up, 5-3.
 
In the bottom of the eighth, after his homer, Vallieres kept it up with a leadoff double down the left line. After he went to third base on a groundout, Vallieres scored on a passed ball to pull the Bobcats within one, 5-4. Unfortunately, UL Monroe added two more runs in the ninth for a three-run lead, 7-4. That would be the final.
 
Next up for the Bobcats will be in-state rival Rice at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Texas State will travel to Houston to face the Owls, ranked between 10^th and 16^th nationally in various polls, and follow with a road trip to Appalachian State for the team's second conference series of the season. The Bobcats will return to San Marcos after that to host UTSA for a midweek game at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17.