ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team rallied from a 6-1 deficit to win game two of Sunday's doubleheader against Upper Iowa 10-8 and clinched a spot in the GLVC Tournament in the process. The Tritons dropped game one on Sunday 10-2.
UMSL improves to 29-17 overall including 20-12 in the GLVC while the Peacocks fall to 10-33 and 7-25 in league play.
The Tritons will be making their first postseason appearance since 2014 when the conference tournament was held in Evansville, Ind. This year's conference tournament will be held at Mtn. Dew Park in Marion, Ill., May 8-11. Final pairings and game times will be announced after the regular season wraps up on Saturday.
Game 2 – UMSL 10 Upper Iowa 8
Upper Iowa scored the first run of the nightcap getting two walks, two wild pitches and a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first.
UMSL came back tying the game in the second.
Mitchell Green led off the inning with a walk and went to second on
Justin Simard's single to left.
Logan McIntyre advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt and
Kameron Laskowski tied the game on a ground out to second bringing home Green.
The Peacocks regained the in their half of the second on Paul Safranski's two-out two-run homer to straight away center field. UIU got a two-run home run from Bryce Hall in the third to extend its lead to 5-1.
The Peacocks scored again in the fourth as Safranski scored from third on a passed ball.
The Tritons got back into the game in the fifth loading the bases with two outs for
Barrett Rose. Rose hammered a 1-0 pitch from Jason Jennerjohn over the fence in right for a grand slam and his 11th home run of the season.
Upper Iowa had a chance to extend its lead in the sixth as Ethan Sawyer tried to score on a pitch in the dirt but was thrown out by Laskowski as
Nate Zyzda applied the tag for the second out of the inning.
UMSL took advantage of an error by Steve Marhefke in the seventh and had runners at second and third with one out. After a strikeout, the Peacocks intentionally walked Rose and
Andrew Buescher made them pay launching a 1-0 pitch over the fence in right center for a grand slam and his team leading 12th home run of the season.
Upper Iowa got a run back in the seventh as Brock Zimmer scored on a fielder's choice to make it 9-7.
The Tritons cashed in on another error in the eighth as McIntyre reached when Sawyer dropped a line drive.
Logan Mantz ran for McIntyre and eventually scored on
Jake Isaacs' bunt single up the first base line.
The Peacocks kept fighting getting a run in the eighth as Sawyer scored on a ground out to second.
Upper Iowa got the tying run on base in the ninth but
Trent Anderson struck out the final two hitters to nail down his seventh save of the season.
UMSL had nine hits in game two and were led by Rose and Isaacs with two apiece. Zyzda picked up the win allowing an unearned run on one hit and four strikeouts in his 3.1 innings pitched to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Game 1 – Upper Iowa 10 UMSL 2
The Tritons scored twice in the third inning as Simard walked the bases loaded to drive in Green and then McIntyre hit a sacrifice fly to center scoring Buescher.
The Peacocks rallied sending 10 batters to the plate in the fourth scoring five runs on three hits and an error. Justin Baehler put UIU in front with a single through a vacated hole on the right side of the infield and later in the inning Sawyer hit a two-run single to center.
The Peacocks extended their lead with three in the fifth and two more in the sixth for the final margin.
UMSL struggled to get its offense going on as it was held to three hits in the opener with Rose, Isaacs and Mantz each picking one up.
Dustin Hagens took the loss giving up five runs, two earned, on three hits and struck out seven in 3.2 innings pitched to fall to 3-5.
The Tritons wrap up the regular season hosting Missouri S&T in a four-game series beginning at 2 p.m. this Thursday at the UMSL Baseball Field.
