The UMSL Tritons won their GLVC Tournament opener, Wednesday night against No. 1 seed Lewis. (Photo: Thomas Grove)
| NCAA Softball | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #8 UMSL (28-22) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 13 | 2 |
| #1 Lewis (36-15) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 0 |
WP: Dustin Hagens – UMSL (3-5) LP: Carter Endisch – LEWIS (4-2)
DeMarcus Dixon
Staff Writer
MARION, IL — On an evening full of comeback rallies, the University of Missouri-St. Louis baseball team pulled out the last one to earn a thrilling 8-7 extra-innings win over top-seeded Lewis University in the first round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament at Mtn. Dew Park.
UMSL, which didn’t earn its spot into the tournament until the final day of the regular season and entered the event as the No. 8 seed, came back from 5-0 and 6-1 deficits to take a 7-6 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
Lewis then scored a run of its own to send the game to extra innings, but that’s when the clocks passed midnight and UMSL got a rally-starter hit from freshman catcher Noah Tomaras and a clutch, two-out, pinch hit double from senior Logan McIntyre to take the lead.
Sophomore reliever Dustin Hagens, who had come in in the ninth and gave up the tying run previously, allowed a leadoff single to Lewis, but then struck out the next three batters to end the game and win the game for the Tritons.
UMSL’s Logan McIntyre drove in the winning run in the Tritons’ win over Lewis on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy: UMSL Athletics)
The victory sent UMSL (28-22) to the second round of the GLVC Tournament, where the Tritons will play No. 5 seed Indianapolis (30-20) in a game where the winner will advance to the winner’s bracket and only need one more win to advance to the tournament’s championship game on Sunday.
This will be the first meeting between UMSL and UIndy this season. First pitch on Friday is set for 12:30 p.m.
Pitcher Dustin Hagens got the win in UMSL’s victory over Lewis on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy: UMSL Athletics)
In Wednesday’s contest against Lewis, the Flyers led 5-0 after five innings, then after UMSL got on the board with a run in the top of the sixth, Lewis added a run of its own to go up 6-1.
But the Tritons refused to go down and scored four runs in the eighth on RBI singles by Barrett Rose and Cade Grevengoed, and a two-run single by Cooper Blythe. UMSL then took the lead in the top of the ninth on a two-run single by Mitch Bonczkowsi.
Lewis drew two walks and produced a perfect bunt single to lead the bases in the ninth off Hagens. A sacrifice fly drove in the tying run and sent the potential winning run to third. But Hagens struck out the next Lewis batter to get out of the inning and keep the game tied.
That set the stage for the late-night heroics by Tomaras and McIntyre. Tomaras had been 0-for-4 in the game, but came up and lined a single up the middle to get the rally started.
He advanced to second on a groundout, which brought McIntyre to the plate with two outs. And the junior transfer from Three Rivers Community College roped a shot down the right-field line that scored Tomaras and gave UMSL the lead.
Hagens (3-5) closed out the 10th to preserve the win and send UMSL to the next round.
Other individual standouts for UMSL included Bonczkowski, who had three hits and three RBIs, and senior Braedon Stoakes, who had four hits and scored three runs. Relievers Will Johnson, Jacob Arndt, and Cody Brooks combined to pitch 2 2/3 scoreless innings to help keep UMSL in the game before it made its dramatic comeback.
GLVC Tournament Bracket (Image courtesy: GLVCSports.com)