ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team's late rally came up short in a 3-2 loss to McKendree in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at the UMSL Baseball Field. The Tritons drop to 26-16, 17-11 GLVC while the Bearcats improve to 14-27, 8-20 GLVC.

McKendree struck first with two runs on three hits and a walk in the top of the first. Brandon Roth brought home Michael Paule with an RBI single back up the middle to score the first run of the contest and then Brody Macak hit a two-out single back up the middle to bring home Noah Nelson with the second run.

The Bearcats added an insurance run in the seventh as Kyle Czarnecki reached on an error by Andrew Buescher at second allowing Nelson to score from third.

UMSL had its chances getting runners on base in seven of the nine innings but were unable to break through against Joey Kossina until the eighth inning.

Bryce Kulinski led off the inning getting hit by a pitch and that ended Kossina's day as Nate Arnold came on to replace him. Barrett Rose followed with a single to right to bring the tying run to the plate. Buescher reached on a fielder's choice to second and Rose advanced to second when Macak's throw to short was wide of the bag.

After a foul out to third, Mitchell Green walked to force home Kulinski to make it a 3-1 ball game. Justin Simard drove in the second run with a fielder's choice as Green was retired at second for the second out of the frame.

The Tritons had the tying run at third and the go-ahead run at second but a fly out to right ended the inning.

UMSL was retired in order in the ninth.

The Tritons finished with five hits in the contest and were led by Rose with two while Kulinski, Simard and Logan Mantz had one hit each. Garrett Brunstetter took the loss giving up two runs on four hits but struck out 11 to fall to 3-3 on the season.

UMSL plays its final road series of the regular season next weekend as it travels to Fayette, Iowa to take on Upper Iowa in a four-game series beginning on Friday at 2 p.m.