UMSL Splits with Hawks

Drewes Pitches Rivermen to Win in Opener

St. Louis, Mo. – The UMSL baseball team hosted Quincy in a big conference doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon, getting a great pitching performance once again from Brad Drewes (St. Louis, Mo.) for a 3-1 win in the opener, but dropped the second game 13-9 to the Hawks.

Drewes improved his record to 6-0 on the season with his fourth complete game of the year, going 7.0 innings and giving up one run on just two hits, and struck out eight. It was a scoreless until the third inning when Doug Wiles (Farmington, Mo./Farmington) hit a solo home run to left and the Rivermen then added an unearned run in the fourth for a 2-0 lead. Quincy would get on the board in the sixth with an RBI single to cut the lead down to just one run. Logan Hughes (Walnut Shade, Mo./Branson) then gave the Rivermen a cushion with a solo home run in the sixth for the 3-1 victory.

The second game was a back and forth battle. Quincy got the first run of the game in the third inning before UMSL poured on five runs in the fifth, getting three consecutive RBI hits from Scott Sanders (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway North), Jonathan Merccer (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) and Logan Hughes. The Hawks would add a single run in the sixth and then took the elad in the seventh with four unearned runs to grab a 6-5 lead. The Rivermen came right back with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, the big blow coming on a two-run single by Scott Davis (High Ridge, Mo./Northwest). The UMSL relief pitching would then struggle in the eighth, giving up five runs to the Hawks, including two unearned runs, as Quincy reclaimed the lead at 11-9, and the Hawks added two more in the ninth for the 13-9 win.

UMSL is now 21-18-1 on the season and 16-10 in the GLVC. The Rivermen will be at home again this weekend with a doubleheader against Bellarmine on both Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 12 noon each day.