UMSL Beats Florida Southern for First Win of the Season

Rivermen Open Season at 1-2 at Diamond Classic

Savannah, Ga. – The UMSL baseball team got its first action outside – playing three games against two nationally ranked opponents at the 2004 Diamond Classic. The Rivermen bounced back on Sunday against Florida Southern and held on for a 6-5 win over the 15th-ranked Moccasins. That came after two hard losses on Saturday, losing to Florida Southern in the first game 12-2, and in the second game lost 17-5 to host Armstrong Atlantic State.

In Sunday’s game against Florida Southern, UMSL got a good starting performance from Josh Morgan (St. Louis, Mo./St. Mary’s), who kept the Florida Southern bats quiet long enough for UMSL to establish a lead. It was a scoreless game going into the bottom of the fourth when UMSL brought home the first run of the game. Tom Anderson (Bridgeton, Mo./Hazelwood West) drew a lead off walk and moved to third on a single by Scott Sanders (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North). Anderson then came around to score on a wild pitch for a 1-0 UMSL lead after four innings.

The Rivermen then capitalized in the fifth, scoring five runs in the bottom half of the inning. Tony Grana (Ballwin, Mo./Lafayette) got the inning started with a base hit and then stole second. Grana came around to score on an RBI single by Jonathan Mercer (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan). Logan Hughes (Branson, Mo./Walnut Shade) followed with another RBI single and Mike Wulff (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles West) belted a three-run homer for a 6-0 UMSL lead. The Moccasins chipped away at the lead in the seventh, scoring two runs in that inning to make it a 6-2 game. Florida Southern threatened again in the eighth, getting three more runs to cut the UMSL lead to just one at 6-5 before Colby Hughes (Branson, Mo./Walnut Share) came on in relief and got a strike out to end the inning and the threat in the eighth. Hughes came back in the ninth and got three strikeouts to end the game and pick up his first save of the year, and gave Josh Morgan and the Rivermen their first victories of the season, 6-5 over Florida Southern.

In the first game Saturday, UMSL gave up single runs in the first two innings against Florida Southern, and then took the lead in the third. Tony Grana got a three-run homer for the Rivermen in that third inning to give UMSL a 3-2 lead. Florida Southern came right back in the bottom half of the inning and scored six runs, all coming with two outs. The Moccasins then added one run in the fourth and three more in the fifth for the 12-3 lead. Tony Grana went 1-for-5 with three RBIs on the home run and Colby Hughes went 3-for-4 with one run scored for UMSL. Starting pitcher Matt Kueny (Boonville, Mo./Boonville) took the loss for the Rivermen.

Against Armstrong Atlantic, the Pirates came out in the first inning and got a quick lead, getting a two-run homer and two RBI singles in the first inning for a 4-0 lead. In the third, UMSL would cut that lead in half on a two-run double by Jonathan Mercer to make it a 4-2 game. Armstrong Atlantic then led off the bottom half of the third with three straight solo home runs and added three more runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to lead 11-2. Two more home runs in the sixth for AASU made it a 13-2 game before UMSL made a come back in the seventh. Scott Miller (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) led off with a double, and later in the inning UMSL got RBI singles from Scott Davis (High Ridge, Mo./Northwest), Logan Hughes and Tom Anderson to make it a 13-5 game. AASU then added two runs in both the seventh and eighth innings for the 17-5 win. Starting pitcher Steve McCoy (Potosi, Mo./Potosi) took the loss for UMSL.

The Rivermen are now 1-2 on the season and will be in action again next weekend when UMSL travels to play a three-game series at Central Arkansas.