UMSL Wins in Late Innings

Rivermen Beat SIUE 15-9 with Six-Run Eighth

St. Louis, Mo. - The UMSL baseball team rallied from a seven-run deficit to beat visiting SIU Edwardsville 15-9 on Thursday afternoon. The Rivermen trailed SIUE 8-1 going into the bottom of the fourth, and outscored the Cougars 14-1 the rest of the game to win 15-9.

The Cougars jumped out on top early, scoring five runs in the second inning, all coming across the plate with two outs. UMSL got a single run in the third inning on a bases loaded walk to Scott Davis (High Ridge, Mo./Northwest). SIUE then added three more runs in the top of the fourth to take an 8-1 lead before the Rivermen started their comeback.

UMSL started the rally with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Aaron Brown (Florissant, Mo./McCluer North) blasted an RBI triple to center to bring home the first run, and he then scored on an RBI double by Tony Grana (Ballwin, Mo./Lafayette). Jim Reiter (Troy, Mo./Troy Buchanan) followed with another RBI double that scored Grana, and Reiter later came across the plate on a pass ball for the final run of the inning, making it an 8-5 game. The Rivermen then plated single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Bryan Weiss (St. Peters, Mo./Francis Howell North) drew a bases loaded walk in the fifth to score Scott Sanders (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North) and in the sixth inning, Brown had an RBI single that scored Sanders again and cut the SIUE lead to one run at 8-7 after six innings.

The Cougars then tried to give themselves a cushion by scoring a single run in the top of the seventh. It wasn’t enough however, as UMSL scored twice in the bottom half of the inning. In that seventh inning, Tony Grana led off with a walk, stole second and then scored when Bryan Weiss reached on a two base error. After a ground out moved Weiss to third, he then scored the tying run on a wild pitch to make it 9-9 after seven innings. UMSL reliever Josh Green (Mascoutah, Ill./Mascoutah) retired SIUE in order in the top of the eighth, setting the stage for an UMSL rally in the bottom of the eighth.

Colby Hughes (Walnut Shade, Mo./Branson) led off the eighth for UMSL with a double and scored the go ahead run on an RBI single by Scott Sanders. Sanders then came around to score when the SIUE right fielder misplayed a base hit by Aaron Brown. After a walk, Tony Grana then stepped up and hit a two-run double, and scored one batter later on an RBI single by Jim Reiter. Reiter would score the sixth and final run of the inning on an RBI double by Logan Hughes (Walnut Shade, Mo./Branson). Josh Green then struck out the side in the top of the ninth to end the game and give UMSL the 15-9 win.

Aaron Brown went 3-for-5 from the plate for UMSL, scoring twice and knocking in two RBIs. Leadoff hitter Tony Grana scored four runs while going 2-for-4 with three RBIs and Scott Sanders also scored four runs in the game while going 2-for-3 from the plate. Josh Green pitched two perfect innings to pick up the win, striking out the last four hitters he faced in the game.

UMSL improved to 17-4 on the season and 6-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Rivermen will play two non-conference series this weekend, hosting Rockhurst on Saturday at 12 noon and then playing at Lincoln on Sunday at 12 noon.