ST. LOUIS – University of Missouri-St. Louis senior left-handed pitcher
Eli Cartwright joined an exclusive club as he threw the eighth no-hitter in program history in a 4-0 win over Southwest Baptist on Saturday afternoon at the UMSL Baseball Field. The Bearcats won the opener 9-2.
Game 2 – UMSL 4, SBU 0
Cartwright walked the first batter he saw but worked around it to pitch a scoreless first.
Mitch Bonczkowski gave UMSL (13-14, 7-4 GLVC) the lead in the home half of the first hitting a laser beam over the fence in left for his 10th home run of the season.
Cartwright struck out the side in the second inning and added another one in the third inning for his fifth strikeout of the afternoon. He struck out the side again in the fourth inning as he worked around a two-out walk to Ryan Ray.
The Tritons gave him an insurance run in their half of the fourth as
Owen Faith hit a one-out double to right center and scored later in the inning on a throwing error by Beau Honeycutt.
Cartwright delivered another 1-2-3 inning in the sixth striking out Cameron Dean for his ninth strikeout of the contest. He added another three up, three down frame in the sixth including a punch out of Collin McLemore for his 10th strikeout of the game.
UMSL got two more runs in the sixth as
Noah Tomaras singled on a pop up to right center that brought home Faith and then
Luke Saxton scored on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
That was all the run support Cartwright needed as he recorded two more strikeouts in the seventh and got Honeycutt to ground out to short to end the game.
It was the first no-hitter thrown by a Triton hurler since Kyle Wilson did it against Lincoln on April 29, 2015.
Cartwright threw 96 pitches in his outing and recorded five outs on the ground and three in the air in addition to his 12 strikeouts. His strikeout total matched his season-high he set against Hillsdale on March 7.
The Tritons had four hits in the contest and were led by Faith with two.
Game 1 – SBU 9, UMSL 2
SBU (13-14, 7-8 GLVC) struck first in the opener on an RBI single from Raydley Legito in the third.
UMSL countered in its half of the third as
Garrett Strenger brought home
LJ Randle with a single to center and then Faith hit a sacrifice fly to center to score
Justin Terhaar.
The Bearcats retook the lead in the fourth getting an RBI double from Jared Pugrad to tie the game. A throwing error by Terhaar allowed Cameron Dean to score the go-ahead run and then Collin McLemore drove in Pugrad with a single to left.
SBU added four more in the fifth and one in the seventh on a solo home run from Conner Titus.
The Tritons were held to six hits in the opener and were led by Randle with two.
Bryce Nicolay got the start on the mound and took the loss allowing eight runs, seven earned, on 11 hits with three strikeouts.
UMSL and the Bearcats conclude their four-game series with a single game on Sunday starting at noon at the UMSL Baseball Field.
