ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team cruised to a 9-0 win in its series opener against Lincoln at the UMSL Baseball Field on Friday afternoon. The Tritons improve to 24-19, 18-7 GLVC while the Blue Tigers drop to 6-35, 0-25 GLVC.

UMSL jumped on top in the home half of the first. LJ Randle led off the game with a double down the right field line and scored on Mitch Bonczkowski's RBI single to left center. It was Bonczkowski's team leading 55th RBI of the season.

The Tritons added to their lead with an RBI double from Garrett Strenger in the fourth inning and to a two-run triple from Owen Faith in the fifth inning to make it 4-0.

UMSL broke it open with three runs on four hits in the sixth inning. Ethan Landis hit a two-run single to left scoring Faith and Strenger and Randle followed with a sacrifice fly to center scoring Justin Simard.

Faith and Luke Saxton pulled off a double steal in the seventh inning as Saxton broke for second and the pitcher deflected the throw to second allowing Faith to walk home with the eighth run.

The Tritons final run scored in the eighth inning as Randle hit a sac fly to center scoring Landis.

That was all the run support that Brandon Johnson needed as held Lincoln scoreless on four hits with a season-high 10 strikeouts to pick up his second win of the season. At one point, Johnson retired 13 straight hitters until a two-out single in the seventh. Will Bellmore, Nate Kemp and Will Moore combined to pitch the final two innings preserving the shutout.

UMSL had 13 hits in the contest and was led by Randle with three. He also scored a pair of runs and drove in two. Faith, Strenger and Landis added two hits apiece.

The Tritons and Blue Tigers continue their four-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at noon at the UMSL Baseball Field. The team will honor its 10 seniors between games of the doubleheader.