MARION, Ill. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team advanced to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament championship game with an 11-1 win over Missouri S&T on Friday afternoon at Mtn Dew Park in Marion, Ill. The Tritons improve to 32-20 while the Miners drop to 33-17.
Garrett Brunstetter put up a zero in the top of the first as he worked around a two-out walk.
UMSL, seeded second, came to bat in the home half of the first sending 12 batters to the plate scoring six runs on seven hits.
Garrett Strenger singled off the bag at first to drive in the first two runs.
Cade Grevengoed followed with an RBI double down the right field line to make it 3-0.
Ethan Landis hit a two-run single to right and
LJ Randle capped the inning with an RBI single to left.
The Tritons added another run in the third as
Justin Terhaar hit a ground ball to short. Nick Krodinger tried to get the force at second but his throw was high and Landis scored to make it 7-0.
UMSL got another unearned run in the fifth as Terhaar brought home Grevengoed with a single to left.
Bennett Cagle made it 9-0 with a solo home run to left center in the sixth.
S&T, seeded first, got a lead off triple from Will Muench in the seventh and a sacrifice fly from Aiden Cizek to make it 9-1.
The Tritons closed it out with two runs in the seventh as Randle hit a triple to left center scoring Simard and Terhaar brought home Randle with a single to left center.
UMSL finished with 15 hits in the contest and was led by Simard and Terhaar with three each while Randle, Bonczkowski and Landis added two apiece. Brunstetter picked up the win tossing a complete game giving up one run on three hits with four strikeouts against three walks to improve to 6-0 on the season.
The Tritons will play for their first GLVC Championship since 2004 when they won their first GLVC title. They'll play the winner of UIndy and Missouri S&T at noon at Mtn Dew Park in Marion, Ill., at noon.
