All good things must come to an end. Even being alone atop the Sun Belt and a 22-game home win streak that was good for the best in the nation. Both of those feats belonged to the Louisiana Monroe Warhawks (34-19, 14-8 Sun Belt), until the Texas State Bobcats (32-18, 14-8 Sun Belt) came to town.

Five unanswered runs in the seventh and final inning gave Texas State a crucial win over Louisiana Monroe by a score of 5-3 Thursday night at the Softball Complex in Monroe, Louisiana.

Emma Strood got the nod in game one of the three-game series that will decide the conference’s regular season champion. In all seven innings of work, Strood allowed three runs on seven hits and tallied five strikeouts to earn her eleventh win and sixth complete game of the season.

You could say the Bobcats were hawking around up until the bottom of the seventh before an offensive implosion that resulted in five runs to do the trick. With the ducks on the pond and no outs, Sydney Harvey put Texas State on the board with an RBI walk. Keely Williams reached base on an infield single that scored Kate Bubela and left the bases juiced. That would bring up Aiyana Coleman, arguably the most feared hitter in the conference, who came up big with a three-RBI double that gave the Bobcats a two-run lead, their first of the night.

It took no time for the Warhawks to strike as they put up a pair of runs in the first inning off of an RBI single from Morgan Brown. Maryssa Zenzen would add the second run on a sacrifice fly.

A questionable obstruction call against Megan Kelnar gave Monroe its third and final run of the night in the fifth inning.

Dakota Lake, who came in relief of the Warhawks starting pitcher Victoria Abrams in the seventh, suffered the loss. Abrams finished the game with four runs allowed on two hits, seven walks, and five strikeouts in six innings.

Game two of this three game set will begin at 6 p.m. to avoid some early weather. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.