MONROE, La. – Murray State used a seven-run third inning to break open the game and cruised to an 11-5 win over ULM Sunday afternoon in the rubber match of the series at Lou St. Amant Field.
 
The game was tied at 1 after the teams exchanged runs in the first inning on an RBI single by Riley Hawthorne for Murray State (5-2 overall) and a leadoff home run by Easton Winfield for ULM (3-4).
 
The Racers used to hits and a walk to load the bases with one out in the top of the third and chase ULM starting pitcher Parker Seay (1-1) from the game. Daniel Gonzalez entered and walked Carson Garner to force in a run for the 2-1 Murray State lead. Back-to-back fielding errors allowed two more runs to score before a 2-RBI single by Parker Estes expanded the Racer lead to 6-1. Two batters later, Drew Vogel clubbed a 2-RBI double for the 8-1 advantage.
 
Murray State added another run in the fourth inning on Taylor Howell's RBI single, leading 9-1.
 
ULM picked up a 2-run home run by Michelle Artzberger in the fifth inning, extending his reached-base streak to 36 games. After Murray State tacked on two more insurance runs in the eighth inning, ULM scored two runs again in the ninth, using an RBI single by Matt Abshire to plate Hasani Johnson and a wild pitch to score Winfield to get within six, 11-5. However, ULM's rally ended there in the 11-5 loss.
 
Johnson came off the bench and led ULM with two hits. Hawthorne had three hits and two RBIs to lead Murray State, while four other players had two hits each.
 
Allen Roulette (2-0) threw the final five innings of the game for Murray State to earn the win, allowing four runs on six hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Ryan Fender tossed four innings in the start, allowing only the home run to Winfield with four walks and five strikeouts. Seay suffered the loss, allowing four runs, three earned, on four hits with two walks and five strikeouts in the start.
 
ULM is back in action at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Northwestern State.