LIBERTY, Mo. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team defeated William Jewell 10-3 to extend its winning streak to three on Thursday evening at Talley Stadium in Liberty, Mo. The Tritons improve to 15-14, 9-4 GLVC while the Cardinals drop to 6-22, 2-11 GLVC.

UMSL got back-to-back home runs from Mitch Bonczkowski and Owen Faith with two out in the first inning to take an early two-run lead. WJC countered with two runs of its own in its half of the second.

Koen Gakstatter led off the inning with a solo home run and later in the in frame, Luke Bies singled down the right field scoring Bronson Ryan with the tying run.

The Tritons retook the lead in the top of the third on Bonczkowski's second home run of the contest to make it 3-2. For Bonczkowski it was his league leading 13th home run of the season. He's now three home runs shy of the UMSL single season record and four home runs shy of the Tritons career mark.

The Cardinals tied the game in the fourth on a solo home run from Ilyas van den Bos and had a chance to take the lead but Ryan Karl came out of UMSL's bullpen to strike out Austin Dahlberg for the final out of the fourth to keep the game tied at 3-3.

UMSL retook the lead in its half of the fifth on a two-out, two-run single back up the middle from Garrett Strenger to score Faith and Justin Terhaar.

William Jewell loaded the bases in its half of the fifth but Karl struck out Luke Bies swinging to preserve the lead.

The Tritons extended their lead in the sixth on an RBI triple down the right field line from Terhaar that scored Justin Simard to make it 6-3.

UMSL tacked on four insurance runs in the seventh. Ethan Landis blooped a single down the left field line to score Cade Grevengoed. Strenger came into score on Landis' steal of second as the catcher's throw went into center field to make it 8-3. Simard then brought home Landis and Luke Saxton with a two-run single to right center.

The Tritons finished with 16 hits in the contest and were led by Faith with four while Simard added three and Terhaar, Bonczkowski, Landis and Saxton had two apiece. Karl picked up his first win as a Triton tossing 1.1 innings of scoreless relief. He allowed three hits and struck out three in his outing.

UMSL and the Cardinals continue their four-game weekend series on Friday with a doubleheader starting at 11 a.m. on Fred Flook Field at Talley Stadium.