ST. LOUIS, MO. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team defeated No. 9 ranked Quincy, 5-3, in the first game of a four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series on Saturday, while the Hawks took game two, 17-6.
 
UMSL moves to 20-8 with the split, including 5-5 in the GLVC, while Quincy is now 19-8 and also 5-5 in the league.
 
The two teams will close out their series tomorrow with another doubleheader scheduled for an 11 a.m. first pitch.
 
GAME 1: UMSL 5, Quincy 3
The Tritons jumped out to an early 3-0 advantage, including a 1-0 lead in the first inning on freshman Tom DeCero's solo home run, which extended his hitting streak to 10 games. UMSL tacked on two more runs in the third inning on junior Tanner Hudson's long double that scored senior Justin Busekrus from first, while freshman Matt Foster's RBI groundout extended the lead to 3-0.
 
Senior Kurt McGuire retired the first 10 Quincy batters he faced, including six on strikeouts, before allowing his first baserunner via a walk in the top of the fourth. The Hawks followed with a pair of extra base hits, including a two-run homer, to pull even at 3-3.
 
UMSL retook the lead in the fifth with two runs, scoring one on senior Zach McKenney's bases loaded sac fly, while the other came courtesy of a Hawks dropped fly ball.
 
The Tritons out-hit the Hawks, 10-5, with junior Nick Ulrey going 3-for-4 at the plate. Hudson and Foster each added two hits and an RBI.
 
McGuire went seven innings, allowing three runs on four hits, while striking out a season-best eight to improve to 5-1. Senior Austin Simokaitis recorded his 11^th save of the year.
 
GAME 2: Quincy 17, UMSL 6
Quincy broke open the game in the fourth inning, scoring nine runs – all unearned - on four hits, five walks and three Triton errors to post a 10-1 advantage as the Hawks went to bat 14 times in that frame.
 
The guests finished the game with 12 hits, including six for extra base, while UMSL had eight hits.
 
Back-to-back doubles by the Tritons in the second inning, including one from Foster, which scored senior Dominic Orlando, knotted the score at 1-1.
 
UMSL added four runs in the sixth, one on Orlando's RBI single and three on McKenney's home run.
Junior Jake Daily drove in the final run of the game with an RBI groundout in the seventh.
 
Orlando recorded two hits and scored two runs, while Foster also tallied two hits.
 
Senior Jose Ortiz drew a fifth inning walk, his team-leading 33rd of the season, to extend his on-base streak to 14 games.
 
Junior Jake Renfrow took the loss, allowing nine unearned runs on five hits and four walks in three and two-thirds of an inning.