ST. LOUIS – It took longer than expected but the University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team clinched a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament beating Maryville 4-0 and Mother Nature on Saturday at the UMSL Baseball and Weber Field. The Tritons improve to 27-22, 16-15 while the Saints drop to 29-20, 21-10 GLVC.

UMSL took the early lead in the home half of the first on Andrew Buescher's RBI single to left that scored Barrett Rose.

The Tritons added to their lead in the third as Rose brought home Braedon Stoakes with a sacrifice fly to center and later in the inning Cade Grevengoed hit a two-run home run to left for his seventh roundtripper of the season.

Maryville loaded the bases with one out in the fourth but Nate Kemp came out of the bullpen and got Cameron Macon to ground into a 643 double play to end the threat.

The game was suspended due to rain after the bottom of the fourth inning and resumed after a 6:45 delay at 6 p.m. at Weber Field. The Saints got a leadoff single from Ambrose Russo and a walk to Dominic Sharp after the game resumed but Bryce Stenzel got a fly out and two strikeouts to end the inning.

The game was called due to rain at the conclusion of the top of the fifth and game two was canceled due to rain.

UMSL had six hits in the contest with Buescher recording two of those while Stoakes, Mitch Bonczkowski, Grevengoed and Dane Stevenson had a hit apiece. Kemp picked up the win needing just two pitches to get the double play to improve to 2-0 on the season.

The Tritons will be the number eight seed in the GLVC Tournament and will take on top seeded Lewis on Wednesday (May 7) at 7:30 p.m. at Mtn. Dew Park in Marion, Ill.