ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team dropped the opening game of its four-game series against Missouri S&T 11-4 on Friday afternoon at The Ballpark at S&T. The Tritons fall to 21-22, 14-11 GLVC while the Miners move to 20-19, 11-14 GLVC.
S&T jumped on top with pair of runs in the second as it took advantage of a hit by pitch and a walk. Aaron Berkoff drove in both runners with a double to right field.
UMSL was retired in order in each of the first three innings before breaking through in the fourth. It sent 10 batters to the plate scoring four runs on four hits and four walks.
Andrew Buescher drove in the first run as he was walked with the bases loaded bringing home
Justin Simard.
Bryce Kulinski tied the game with an RBI single to center that scored
Brandon Olion.
Carson Holin gave UMSL the lead as he drove in
Mitchell Green with a groundout to third.
Jared Bryant walked to reload the bases and then
Jake Isaacs drew a walk that brought home Buescher.
The Miners countered with three runs in their half of the fourth to regain the lead. Michael Hughes drove in Garrett Weiner with a groundout to Kulinski to make it a one-run contest. Later in the inning Dakota Sill tied the game with a two-out single to right center. S&T regained the lead as Berkhoff scored when Sill got caught in a rundown between first and second.
The Miners added to their lead with a pair of runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Sam Monroe hit a two-run double to left with two out in the fifth to make it 7-4. Sill drove in Berkhoff with a sacrifice fly to right and Chase Burgess scored on a wild pitch to make it 9-4 after the sixth.
S&T added another run in the seventh on Monroe's single to right that scored Weiner and then in the eighth, Sill scored on Cole Hampton's squeeze bunt to
Jacob Mosher.
The Tritons finished with seven hits in the contest and were led by Kulinski with two while Simard, Olion, Green, Isaacs and
Braedon Stoakes had one apiece.
Ryan Berry took the loss allowing five runs on one hit but walked four batters and hit three others.
The two teams continue their four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at noon.
