Monroe, La. - Ty Barnes pitched five strong innings and Blake Buckman and Ryan Humeniuk hit a home run each, as ULM picked up its first Sun Belt Conference win of the season with a 4-2 victory over Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon at Warhawk Field.

The Warhawks (10-17 overall, 1-7 Sun Belt) had dropped their first seven Sun Belt Conference games of the season before erasing an early 1-0 deficit for the Saturday victory over Georgia Southern (14-12, 5-3).

Barnes surrendered three straight singles in the top of the first inning, the last coming from Mason McWhorter to drive in Nolan Tressler for the 1-0 Georgia Southern lead. Barnes settled in after that, giving up just two more hits over five innings, while walking three batters and striking out three to pick up his first win as a starting pitcher at ULM and his second victory overall.

"Just trying to get ahead in the count, fill the zone up, and mostly create soft contact," Barnes said. "I let my defense do the work. That seemed to really work for me today."

It marks the second straight start for Barnes to work through five innings, after giving up three runs to Texas State last week. He had previously come out of the bullpen over the first five weeks of the season prior to his back-to-back Saturday starts.

"I wanted to start from the get-go coming here and I finally got the chance," Barnes said. "Trying to prove my spot."

Barnes picked up some run support in the form of the long ball. Blake Buckman hit a solo home run to lead off the second inning, tying the game at 1. With two outs in the fourth inning, Ryan Humeniuk hit a two-run homer to right, his second in as many games on the weekend, giving the Warhawks the lead for good at 3-1.

"More or less, just trying to see the ball up today," Humeniuk said. "Our scouting report said see the ball up. I knew he was going to come fastball when I was ahead in the count, so that's what I was looking for, with something up in the zone, a fastball I could handle, just try to stay in the middle of the field."

Humeniuk has now hit safely in three straight games after moving down in the order, sitting at the number seven spot in the lineup in Wednesday's game against Jackson State and Friday's game against Georgia Southern before moving up to the sixth slot in Saturday's game. Humeniuk says the move has helped him in his approach after hitting leadoff for much of the early portion of the season.

"It really shouldn't, but I think, more or less, just not trying to do quite as much," Humeniuk said. "I think earlier on in the season especially I was trying to do so much. I was always trying to get something going. When I'm at my best, I'm just trying to hit a single up the middle."

Georgia Southern cut the deficit to one in the top of the seventh when Steven Curry reached on a walk and advanced to third on a double by Tressler. A passed ball allowed Curry to score to make it 3-2 before Jacob Barton picked up a strikeout to close out the frame.

The Warhawks answered in the bottom of the seventh inning as Logan Wurm hit a double which one-hopped off the wall in left field. A sacrifice bunt by Nathan Miranda moved him over to third, and Braedon Barrett's sacrifice fly pushed the lead back to two at 4-2.

The Eagles put two men on base in the eighth with one out, but Barton picked up a strikeout and induced a fly ball to get out of the jam. Barton then retired the Eagles in the ninth to pick up a four-inning save, giving up an unearned run on two hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

Head coach Mike Federico said Barnes and Barton both did a nice job to limit the threats from the Eagles.

"The damage control innings are huge," Federico said. "You know you're going to have to weather the storm a little bit sometimes. That's the word I used to our pitchers, and sometimes its just give up one, let's not give up two. You give up two, let's not give up three. That's what we didn't do last night. Ty really settled in. I thought Jacob kind of weathered the storm. Too many walks for us, but at the same time, we limit them on the number of hits they had, too."

Defensively, the Warhawks settled down a day after committing five errors. ULM turned a pair of double plays and committed just one error, on a pickoff throw by Barnes.

"A couple of those double plays were huge, too, that we were able to turn as well," Federico said. "I thought (Nathan) Miranda played really well on a couple of those tough balls that were hit deep into the six-hole and just getting an out. Last night, we didn't do that. Sometimes you want to make that big league play, you want to make the SportsCenter play, and it's a lot better to get the routine out. Miranda did a really good job with that today."

The Warhawks and Eagles wrap up the series on Sunday, with first pitch at noon at Warhawk Field. Links to live video and audio are available at ULMWarhawks.com.