ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team dropped its series finale at Rogers State 6-5 on Sunday afternoon at the Diamond Sports Complex in Claremore, Okla. The Tritons are now 2-6 while the Hillcats improve to 9-1.
UMSL broke on top with a run in the second on
Bryce Kulinski's solo home run to left leading off the inning.
Rogers State answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. AJ Folds singled through the right side of the infield driving in Carson Cheatwood and Jake Mitchell with two unearned runs.
The Tritons retook the lead with two runs in the third.
Leighton Keller reached on a fielder's choice and advanced to second on a throwing error by the second baseman as
Braedon Stoakes scored the tying run. Keller advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on
Justin Simard's single to second.
The Hillcats responded with a pair of runs in the fourth. Gavin Mestas drove in Cheatwood and Jhonmy Martinez with a single to left center.
UMSL countered with two runs in the fifth. With one out and runners on the corner, Keller doubled to left to drive in
Carson Holin and then Simard drove in
Brandon Olion with a sacrifice fly to right.
The Tritons held that lead until the bottom of the eighth when Rogers State loaded the bases with no one out.
Brady Krile struck out Mitchell for the first out of the frame. Folds tied the game with a sacrifice fly to center and the go-ahead run scored on a throwing error by Kulinski on a stolen base by Cheatwood.
UMSL had the tying and go-ahead runs on the corners with two out in the ninth but Kulinski flew out to left to end the game.
The Tritons outhit the Hillcats 8-6 in the contest and were led by Keller and Simard with two hits and two RBI apiece. Holin, Kulinski,
Jared Bryant and
Jake Isaacs had a hit apiece. Krile took the loss allowing two runs, one earned, on two hits with three strikeouts over the final 4.1 innings to fall to 0-1 on the season.
UMSL hosts Minnesota Crookston in its home opener this Friday (Feb. 24) at 2 p.m. at the UMSL Baseball Field.
