Normandy, Mo. – The Maryville baseball team pounded out 16 hits as the Saints opened up Great Lake Valley Conference play with a 10-8 victory over the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 12 innings. After the second game of the day was suspended due to darkness with Maryviile leading 5-4 heading to the seventh, the Saints held on to defeat the Tritons 8-6 when the game resumed Saturday.
 
The Saints started the first game of the series quickly as Zack Ruckman opened the game with a walk and moved to second on a Danny Covert single. Mitch Carriger then drew a free pass to load the bases and Dalton Schumer drilled a single through the left side to score a pair and give the Saints a 2-0 lead. The Tritons answered right back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the contest at 2-2.
 
Camdon Mercier started the second with a double to center field and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. Mercier then gave the Saints a 3-2 lead as he scored on a ground out. Maryville extended the lead in the third as Carriger was hit by a pitch and moved to third as Schumer and Louis Niemerg both walked to load the bases again. Tyler Catlett delivered a sacrifice fly to right field to score Carriger while Mercier singled to left to score Schumer as it gave the Saints a 5-2 advantage. UMSL cut into the Maryville lead in the home half of the third by scoring two runs to put the score at 5-4.
 
Maryville added to the lead in the fourth with Ruckman hitting a ground-rule double and scored on a Carriger sacrifice fly to stake the Saints to a 6-4 lead. The Tritons added a run in the fifth and a pair of runs in the sixth to grab a 7-6 lead before the Saints again took the lead in the top of the eighth. Ruckman singled to start the frame and was thrown at trying to advance to third on a Covert double. Matt Scheibel then delivered his second home run of the year to give Maryville an 8-7 lead. The Tritons answered the Saints in the bottom of the ninth with a run to tie the game at 8-8 and force extra innings.
 
The game remained tied until the top of the 12^th when Covert drilled his fifth round tripper of the year to give Maryville a 10-8 advantage. Alec Harris put the Tritons down in order in the bottom of the frame to give the Saints their first GLVC win of the year and improve to 14-8 overall.
 
Harris earned the win by going four innings, giving up one run on two hits while striking out six UMSL batters. Covert lead the way for the Saints by going 3-for-7, with two RBI's and three runs scored while Mercier and Ruckman each added three hits and an RBI.
 
The second game of the series was suspended in the top of the seventh inning with the Saints leading 5-4. Carriger smashed his sixth home run of the year to give Maryville a 2-0 lead in the first inning. UMSL scored a run in the second before the Saints strung together three singles to take a 5-1 lead in the top of the fourth. The Tritons cut the lead to 5-3 with two runs in the bottom of the frame and pushed another run in the home half of the sixth to cut the Maryville lead to 5-4. When play resumed, the Saints extended the lead with three runs in the seventh as Maryville strung together five singles in the inning to grab an 8-4 advantage. The Tritons made it close in the home half of the inning with a pair of runs, but could not get any closer as the Saints improved to 15-8 on the year and 2-0 in the GLVC.
 
AJ Dean improved to 3-0 on the year by going 5.1 innings and giving up four runs on seven hits in the contest. Niemerg was the hitting hero for the Saints, going 3-for-4 on the day with an RBI and a run scored while Carriger, Schumer, and Connor Markell each had a pair of hits.