O'FALLON, MO. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team closed out its opening weekend of play with a split against Harris Stowe. After dropping the opener, 4-2, the Tritons battled back to earn a 4-3 extra innings win in the nightcap.
UMSL (2-1) is idle until is Florida Spring Trip (March 3-10), where they will play 10 games.
Game 1: Harris Stowe 4, UMSL 2
Junior
Tom DeCero hit his second home run in as many games, this one coming on a two-run shot in the first inning for a quick 2-0 lead. The Hornets countered with a run in the bottom of the frame and took the lead in the fourth when they crossed the plate twice. Harris Stowe tacked on an insurance run in the fifth.
UMSL loaded the bases in the seventh with two outs, putting its first two batters on with freshman
John Hilpert singling to left field and senior
Jake Morsch drawing a walk. An error then led to the bases loaded two batters later, but the Tritons were unable to bring in a run.
Hilpert and redshirt junior
Michael Bibbs had two hits each. Both teams tallied seven hits.
Game 2: UMSL 4, Harris Stowe 3 (10 inn.)
Senior
Cooper Vinz drove in freshman
Xavier Collier in the 10
th inning on a two-out double for the game-winner as UMSL completed the comeback.
A throwing error by the Hornets in the top of the ninth led to two UMSL runs, knotting the score at 3-3, after the Tritons got on the board in the eighth when redshirt junior
Brian Seymour doubled to score pinch runner
Derrick Freeman.
UMSL tallied 13 hits in the game, but left 16 runners on base.
Michael Bibbs went 3-for-6 at the plate, while freshman
Josh Shoemaker added two hits and also reached base twice on a pair of walks. Collie, Vinz and Seymour also had two hits each.
Harris Stowe (6-4), which was limited to four hits, scored twice in the first inning and made it 3-0 in seventh.
Junior
Matt Graser picked up the win in two perfect innings of relief work, retiring all six batters he faced.
Senior
Alex Oltmann struck out six in five innings of relief work, allowing one run on three hits.