MONROE, La. – Two walks, two errors and a breakdown in bunt coverage fueled a five-run fifth inning for Southeast Missouri, as the Redhawks salvaged a game from the weekend series, topping the ULM baseball team 6-2 Sunday afternoon at Warhawk Field.

"I like where we're at," ULM head coach Michael Federico said. "I'm disappointed with the loss today. But at the same time, now that the weekend is over with, I saw some positive things, even with the negative results that we had happen."

ULM (2-1) jumped on top first. The Warhawks opened the game with base hits by Trace Henry and Mason Holt. A ground out by Wiley Cleland moved both runners into scoring position. A wild pitch allowed Henry to score as the Warhawks took a 1-0 lead after an inning.

Neither team was able to get anything going offensively until the fourth inning, when SEMO's (1-2) Tyler Wilber belted a solo home run to left field, tying the game at 1.

The Warhawks struggled in the top of the fifth inning. SEMO's Connor Basler reached on a leadoff walk, and moved all the way to third on Danny Wright's sacrifice bunt after ULM failed to cover third base. Andrew Keck then grounded to shortstop, but Colby Deaville bobbled the ball and threw wide of the base, allowing Basler to score and Keck to reach safely on the error. After a walk to Wilber, Justin Dirden hit a deep fly ball to center field, which was dropped by Mason Holt. Keck came home to score on the play and Dirden and Wilber moved to second and third base, respectively. After Austin Blazevic scored Wilber on an RBI groundout, Wade Stauss connected for a two-run home run to left, putting SEMO up 6-1.

"We definitely beat ourselves in that inning," Federico said. "I'd rather learn some of those things there. You can't let a guy, on a bunt, go from first to third. Walks are going to happen. We've got to be able to work ourselves out of those things. We kind of let things get out of hand with the error at shortstop by Deaville and then the dropped fly ball in center. Those things are going to happen. You're going to make mistakes. But there was some mental mistakes that happened in there that we can't allow that to happen."

Meanwhile, the Warhawk offense struggled against SEMO starting pitcher Noah Niznik. After Henry and Holt hit back-to-back singles in the first inning, ULM never had multiple runners on base at the same time for the rest of the game. ULM failed to advance a runner past second base over the final eight innings outside of Deaville's home run, a solo blast to left, in the fifth inning. It was Deaville's second homer of the season.

Niznik, a preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference selection, picked up the win, throwing six innings while giving up two runs on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

"He settled in," Federico said. "You've got a mature guy, that's why he's a preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference player. He didn't panic. He let the game come to him. He didn't have his best stuff early. We tried to push the envelope a little bit too much."

Kayleb Sanderson suffered the loss, throwing 4 1/3 innings in the start, giving up three runs, two earned, on three hits with three walks and five strikeouts. Landon Longsworth threw the final four innings for ULM, giving up no runs on four hits with no walks and four strikeouts.

"Their starter gave themselves a chance and they played hard," Federico said. "That's a good team. They're going to hit a bunch of home runs. They're physical. We definitely had a lot of self-inflicted wounds."

The Warhawks are back in action at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Northwestern State. Links to live video, audio and stats are available at ULMWarhawks.com.