ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team walked off Minnesota Crookston scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth to win game two of its doubleheader 7-6 on Saturday at the UMSL Baseball Field. The Tritons (4-7) dropped the opener to the Golden Eagles (2-5) 7-1.
Game 2 – UMSL 7 Minnesota Crookston 6 9 innings
The second game of Saturday's doubleheader was scoreless until the fourth inning as UMC scored two runs on three hits and an error in the inning. Danny Wensloff opened the inning with a homer to right center and later in the inning Josh Dykhoff drove in Mike Hallquist with a single to right.
UMSL countered scoring three runs in its half of the inning.
Brandon Olion and
Justin Simard started the rally with back-to-back singles to begin the frame.
Leighton Keller advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt to the catcher.
Carson Holin walked to load the bases.
Bryce Kulinski drove in Olion with a sacrifice fly to left for the first run of the frame.
Ryan Hubley walked to reload the bases with two down and then
Mitchell Green singled down the right field line to drive in Simard and Holin to give UMSL the lead.
The Golden Eagles countered in the fifth scoring three runs on two hits and an error. Caden Headlee started a two-out rally with a single up the middle that was followed by back-to-back walks to Wensloff and Hallquist. Dykhoff drove in the tying run with a walk. Jake Hjelle reached on an error by
Leighton Keller to bring in Wensloff with the go-ahead run. Teddy Giefer drove in the final run of the inning with a single up the middle scoring Hallquist.
The Tritons tied the game in the bottom of the fifth as Olion doubled to left with one out and then with two out Keller atoned for his error in the top of the inning hitting a two-run homer to left to tie the game.
UMC had a chance to retake the lead in the seventh and eighth innings but left two runners on in each frame. It took the lead with two outs in the ninth on Hjelle's solo home run to left center.
UMSL won the game in the bottom half of the inning.
Jake Isaacs led off the inning with a single to right and went to second as Green was hit by a pitch. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Isaacs tied the game on a wild pitch and
Jordan Aguallo, running for Green, advanced to third.
Kameron Laskowski walked to put runners on the corner with no one out. Aguallo scored on the second wild pitch of the inning to end the game.
The Tritons had eight hits in the nightcap and were led by Olion and Keller with two hits apiece. Keller and Green had two RBI each.
Adam Rose evened his record at 1-1 pitching the final 1.1 allowing one run on one hit with a strikeout.
Game 1 – Minnesota Crookston 7 UMSL 1
The Golden Eagles jumped out to the early lead in the opener scoring three batters into the game. Headlee led off the game with a double down the right field line and scored on Hallquist's triple to the gap in right center with one out. UMSL limited the damage stranding Hallquist at third.
The Tritons had their chances in the first four innings but left five runners on base including the bases loaded in the fourth.
UMC broke it open scoring three runs on three hits in the fifth. Dykhoff drove in two runs with single up the middle and Hjelled doubled home the final run of the frame.
UMSL got a run back in its half of the fifth. With two out, Olion tripled to right center and scored on Laskowski's single up the middle.
The Golden Eagles put the game away in the seventh scoring three runs on one hit.
The Tritons were outhit in the opener 6-5 and were led by Olion with two.
Jacob Arndt took the loss allowing four runs on five hits in 4.2 innings pitched to drop to 0-1 on the season.
UMSL and UMC will conclude its four-game series with a single nine-inning contest on Sunday afternoon at 12 p.m. at the UMSL Baseball Field. The game was moved up an hour from its previous start time due to weather.
