MONROE, La. – Dustin Mercer's solo home run in the top of the first inning and Carson Garner's solo homer in the top of the ninth proved to be enough offense for Murray State as the Racers took the series opener from ULM, 2-0, Friday night at Lou St. Amant Field.
 
Jacob Pennington (1-0) threw seven shutout innings for Murray State (4-1 overall), allowing just four hits with nine strikeouts and no walks. Ethan Lyke threw a scoreless eighth inning and Nathan Holler threw a scoreless ninth inning for his first save.
 
"Definitely tip your cap to (Pennington)," ULM head coach Michael Federico said. "He threw three pitches for strikes. We could just never get on time with some stuff. Three guys come in and they don't walk a single person. They were in the strike zone and they beat it up quite a bit in there and were able to manipulate the ball left and right and a little bit up and down as well."
 
Beau Blanchard (0-1) suffered the tough-luck loss for ULM (2-3), throwing three innings in the start, allowing a run on two hits with three strikeouts and no walks. Chipper Menard threw 2 2/3 scoreless innings with one hit, five strikeouts and three walks while Davis Oswalt threw a scoreless frame with two hits and one strikeout. Justin Robinson finished the game with 2 1/3 innings, allowing a run on two hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
 
"From the pitching staff, we gave ourselves a chance," Federico said. "Everybody that came in there executed a lot of pitches and they got two swings off and those two swings left the yard."
 
Mercer took the first pitch he saw from Blanchard in the top of the first inning and sent it over the right field wall for the 1-0 lead for Murray State (4-1 overall). Neither team had much of an offensive threat over the next seven and a half innings. ULM never advanced a runner past second base in the game, stranding seven runners on base.
 
ULM (2-3) tried to answer in the bottom of the first inning as Michelle Artzberger was hit by a pitch with two outs and Jake Haggard followed with a single. However, a groundout ended the inning.
 
Bryce Blaser singled with two outs in the third inning for the Warhawks and advanced to second on a wild pitch, but a fly out ended the frame.
 
Murray State had a chance in the fourth inning as Jonathan Hogart singled and stole second before Garner was hit by a pitch, but Menard induced a pop up in foul territory to escape the inning.
 
ULM managed to put Easton Winfield on second in the fifth inning after he singled to open the frame and advanced on Shawn Dalton Weatherbee's groundout. But a pop out and fly out limited the opportunity for the Warhawks.
 
The Racers had their best scoring threats outside of the two home runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Menard walked three batters in the sixth inning, but a pickoff and groundout kept Murray State no further than second base. Oswalt entered the game to induce a ground ball to end the inning.
 
In the seventh, Murray State picked up a one-out single by Dan Tauken and Ethan Krizen added a double to put runners on second and third. Oswalt secured a strikeout for the second out of the inning, and then Justin Robinson came out of the bullpen to strikeout leadoff hitter Drew Vogel to get out of the jam.
 
ULM put pressure on in the seventh and eighth innings. In the seventh, Kade Dupont led off with an infield single, and Ian Montz reached safely on a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt. However, Pennington struck out each of the next three batters to end the inning and his outing.
 
In the eighth inning, Colby Lunsford reached on an error to open the inning, but Blaser hit into a fielder's choice on a sacrifice bunt attempt and was caught stealing moments later to put an end to the threat.
 
"We had opportunities," Federico said. "We left seven on base. We had some runners on and some situations that some hard contact created some errors. But when you don't get free bases with the walks and stuff, it's hard to square up Friday night guys.
 
"We want to be in games like that on Friday night. "You want to get the closer in the game. There's some positive things that we can take out of it. But we need the leprechaun to come out here at The Lou and somehow, someway find a way to win some of these games."
 
Haggard had two hits to lead ULM's offense. Krizen led Murray State with two hits.
 
The series continues at 6 p.m. Saturday at Lou St. Amant Field.