McKenzie Lamos hit her eighth and ninth home runs of the season over the weekend to help the Tritons secure series splits against Indianapolis and McKendree at the UMSL Softball Field. (Photo by Patrick Clark/Athlete’s Eye Photography)
Softball
The University of Missouri–St. Louis softball team secured the No. 2 seed in this week’s Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament after splitting series with sixth-ranked Indianapolis and McKendree at the UMSL Softball Field on the final weekend of the regular season. The Tritons lost the opener to Greyhounds 3-0 on Saturday before bouncing back with a 3-1 victory in the second game. Annie Scaramuzzi struck out eight in a complete-game, one-hit victory, and UMSL got home runs from Irene Travis, McKenzie Lamos and Megan Brown. The Tritons were shut out again in Sunday’s opener, losing 8-0 to the Bearcats, but they answered with a 7-1 win with Scaramuzzi in the circle again. This time she struck out 11 and held McKendree to two hits. Lamos and Jenna Towle both homered in the victory, and UMSL broke the game out with a four-run fourth inning, taking advantage of two McKendree errors. The Tritons (30-18, 16-8 GLVC) UMSL will take on seventh-seeded Rockhurst as the GLVC Tournament gets underway Thursday at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria, Illinois. UMSL split an April 2 doubleheader at Rockhurst, losing the opener 7-5 but taking the second game 5-0.
Baseball
The Tritons dropped all four games of its weekend series against Missouri S&T in Rolla, Missouri. The Miners outscored UMSL 47-32 total as it won games 11-4, 11-8, 7-4 and 18-16. Tritons catcher Bryce Kulinski had eight hits in the series, four of them on Sunday when he drove in seven runs. Andrew Buescher went 3 for 3 with a home run and two RBI the Game 2 loss. Brandon Olion hit a three-run home run in the seventh inning of Game 3. Missouri S&T combined to collect 44 hits. The Tritons will play host to Illinois Springfield in a four-game series, beginning Friday, on the final weekend of the regular season.
Men’s and Women’s Track and Field
Two UMSL runners finished in the top 10 in their events Friday at the Millikin Big Blue Friday Night Invite in Decatur, Illinois. Benjamin VandenBrink was the Tritons’ top finisher with a third-place showing in the men’s 1,500-meter run after clocking a personal-best time of 3 minutes, 54 seconds. Sean Ede took ninth in the men’s 5,000 with a time of 15:20.87, just ahead of teammates Sam Savastino and Matthias Shelp, who finished 10th and 12th, respectively. On the women’s side, Kayley Heeter finished 13th in the 1,500 with a time of 5:07.95, and Lily Wagemann and Ella Tynan where 13th and 14th, respectively, in the 800. UMSL will next compete in the GLVC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, beginning Thursday at Allgood-Bailey Stadium in Rolla.
Men’s Golf
The 22nd-ranked Tritons received their 10th straight NCAA regional tournament berth and 11th in the past 12 years when they were awarded one of 20 bids to the Midwest/Central Regional May 11-13 at the Bridges Golf Course in Winona, Minnesota. There are four regional sites across the country with two regions at each site. A total of 20 teams and eight individuals not with a team will compete in their respective 54-hole tournament. At a minimum, the top three teams and the top two student-athletes not with a team from each regional will advance to the finals, May 22-26 at Avalon Lakes in Warren, Ohio, with the remaining eight team berths to be allocated based on the regions represented in the prior year’s head-to-head medal play portion of the championships, with the maximum number of teams from a given region capped at seven. UMSL fifth-year senior Joel Sylven, the medalist at last year’s NCAA Division II Men’s Golf Championship, will lead the Tritons in the postseason after finishing in the top 10 nine times this season.
Women’s Golf
UMSL earned its 13th straight NCAA regional tournament berth on Monday, landing a one of 15 spots in the NCAA East Regional, which will be held May 8-10 at at Panther Creek Golf Club in Springfield, Ill., with Illinois Springfield serving as the host. The top six teams, along with the top two individuals not with one of those teams, will advance from the 54-hole tournament to the NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Championship, which UMSL is hosting May 16-20 at Fox Run Golf Club in Eureka, Missouri. The Tritons, led by sophomore Tove Brunell, are coming off a semifinal appearance at the GLVC Championships and own a team scoring average of 305.66 with six top-five finishes, including an event win.
