SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team had its five-game winning streak snapped with an 11-1 loss against Illinois Springfield on Friday afternoon at the UIS Baseball Field in Springfield, Ill. The Tritons are now 34-21 while the Prairie Stars are 36-18.
UIS struck first with a run in the top of the first inning on a sacrifice fly to center scoring Tommy Atkinson. It added to its lead with another run in the second on an RBI single from Atkinson and then got two more in the third as Noah Caceres scored on a wild pitch and Johnny Wendling scored on a sacrifice fly to center to make it 4-0.
UMSL's lone run came in the fourth inning.
Mitch Bonczkowski led off the inning with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on
Bennett Cagle's single to left. The Tritons had runners on the corner with one out with a chance to draw closer but
Garrett Strenger hit a smash to third that was knocked down by Wendling and he started an inning ending 543 double play.
The Prairie Stars sent 10 men to the plate in the fifth scoring five runs on five hits to extend its lead to 9-1. They got another run in the sixth on a groundout to second scoring Kody Morton to make it 10-1.
UMSL threatened again in the seventh loading the bases with one out but back-to-back strikeouts ended the inning.
UIS's final run came in the ninth on a solo home run to right field off the bat of Kaden Griffitts.
The Tritons were held to five hits in the contest and led by Bonczkowski with two of those. Cagle, Strenger and
LJ Randle had the other three.
Garrett Brunstetter took the loss giving up six runs on nine hits with a pair of strikeouts against two walks in four-plus innings pitched to fall to 6-1 on the season.
UMSL looks to keep its season going on Saturday as it takes on Indianapolis in an elimination game at 11 a.m. at the UIS Baseball Field in Springfield, Ill.
