ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team began Great Lakes Valley Conference play sweeping a doubleheader from Truman State 12-11 and 5-1 on Friday afternoon at the UMSL Baseball Field. The Tritons run their winning streak to four and improve to 8-10, 2-0 GLVC while the Bulldogs drop to 6-13, 0-6 GLVC.
Game 1 – UMSL 12 Truman State 11
TSU scored the first run of the contest in its first at-bat. Nick Steurer led off the game with a double to center, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a groundout to second.
UMSL countered sending nine batters to the plate in the second scoring five runs on five hits and an error.
Owen Faith brought home the tying run with a fielder's choice to third as Evan Davis elected to throw home and his throw was off target allowing
Ayden Cline to score and put two runners in scoring position.
LJ Randle put the Tritons ahead with a groundout to short, then
Justin Terhaar singled up the middle to make it 3-1.
Garrett Strenger brought home Terhaar with a double to left center and
Mitch Bonczkowski had an RBI single to left.
The Bulldogs chipped away with a run in the third on a sacrifice fly to center and then in the fourth got a two-run double from Shodai Nishiahara to make it 5-4.
UMSL got regained its three-run lead in the fourth as Faith scored on a wild pitch and Randle came home on a sacrifice fly.
Truman tied it with three runs in the fifth highlighted by a two-run double from Fentress.
The Tritons retook the lead in the fifth with a solo run but the Bulldogs scored three in the sixth to take a 10-8 lead.
UMSL tied it with two in the sixth and then took the lead with two more in the seventh as Faith had an RBI single and Terhaar hit a sacrifice fly.
Truman got an RBI double from Fentress in the eighth to cut the Triton lead to 12-11 but
Will Bellmore got Charlie Berry to ground out to Terhaar to end the inning.
Dustin Hagens set down the Bulldogs on 10 pitches in the ninth to secure his third save of the season and allowed Bellmore to knotch his second win of the year.
UMSL outhit the Bulldogs 14-12 and was led by Randle with three while Terhaar, Bonczkowski and Johnson had two hits each.
Game 2 – UMSL 5 Truman 1
The nightcap was a pitcher's duel between
Eli Cartwright and Caden Carroll as they matched each other through five innings.
The Tritons got doubles from
Justin Simard and Faith in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead. Truman tied it in the third with an unearned run on a sacrifice fly to deep center off the bat of Davis.
UMSL got to Carroll scoring four runs on two hits and an error in the sixth. The Tritons had two one with one out when Randle hit a groundball to Oliver Degenhardt. Degenhardt tried to hurry it to turn a double play but didn't field it cleanly allowing all the runners to advance safely.
Terhaar put UMSL in front with a single to short scoring
Noah Tomaras then Strenger brought home two runs with a double to right and
Brandon Johnson brought home the final run with a sac fly to right.
Hagens pitched a scoreless seventh to lock down the victory.
The Tritons had nine hits in the second game and were led by Strenger with three while Terhaar added two more. Cartwright pitched six strong innings striking out 10 and giving up an unearned run to improve to 3-1 on the season.
The two teams conclude their four-game series with another doubleheader on Saturday starting at noon at the UMSL Baseball Field.
