ST. LOUIS -- The University of Missouri-St. Louis softball team dropped its doubleheader against No. 22 McKendree 4-1 and 15-2 on Saturday afternoon at the Maryville Athletic Complex. The Tritons are now 11-18, 4-10 GLVC while McKendree is 26-13 and 12-4 GLVC.
 
GAME 1 McKendree 4 UMSL 1
UMSL scored first in the opening game of the doubleheader with a run in the second inning. The Tritons loaded the bases with two out and scored on an error by Lauren Harris on a ground ball hit by May Pasqualini that scored Hannah Tomlianovich. Gwyn Miller was injured rounding third on the play and tagged out for the final out of the frame.
 
McKendree evened things up in the third inning on Harris's RBI single to left field to drive in Molly Bartz who had led off the inning with a double.
 
UMSL had a chance to retake the lead in the fourth as Phoebe Miller led off the inning with a single down the right field line and Lexi Sherrick doubled off the fence in left but Sami Huck got two pop outs and a strike out to end the inning.
 
Bartz put the Bearcats in front with a leadoff home run down the left field line and then in the seventh Morgan Spodarek hit a two-run triple to left center to make it 4-1.
 
The Tritons finished with five hits in the contest and were led by P. Miller, Sherrick, Tomlianovich, Jamie Widule and Megan Russell with one each. Ashley Borowitz took the loss in the circle giving up four runs on eight hits with three strikeouts to drop to 6-6 on the season.
 
GAME 2 McKendree 15 UMSL 2
It was all Bearcats in the second game. McKendree scored four runs in the second inning that began with a Spordarek home run.
 
The Bearcats added two runs in the third off an RBI single and tacked on three more in the sixth to extend the lead to 9-0.
 
UMSL scored twice in the sixth to extend the game. Kaytie Kossina singled to bring home Widule and then Sherrick drove in Tomlianovich with a single to right center to make it 9-2.
 
McKendree put an exclamation mark on the contest scoring six runs on seven hits in the seventh highlighted by Paisley Twait's grand slam to left center.
 
The Tritons had four hits in the game with Tomlianovich, Sherrick, P. Miller and Kaytie Kossina recording one each. Ashley Ware took the loss giving up six runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts in three innings pitched.
 
UMSL returns to the diamond next Saturday (April 5) as it travels to Romeoville, Ill., to take on Lewis in a doubleheader starting at noon at the Lewis Softball Field.