St. Louis – The Maryville baseball team earned a split in the final two games of their series with Rockhurst University Saturday afternoon at Weber Field. The Saints fell in the first game of the day, 6-2 and bounced back to earn a 4-0 win in the nightcap.
The Hawks continued to have success in the early innings as Rockhurst scored three runs in the opening frame and then added a run in the second, and two more in the fifth inning to take a 6-0 lead. The Saints battled back in the home half of the fifth when
Danny Covert opened the frame by reaching base on a throwing error. Covert moved up to second on a wild pitch and scored as
Matt Scheibel gave the Saints their first hit of the afternoon to cut the lead to 6-1.
Zack Ruckman drove in Maryville's other run in the inning as reached on a fielder's choice to score
Connor Markell, who walked earlier in the inning, to cut the Rockhurst advantage to 6-2. That is as close as Maryville could get as Joe Huber put the Saints down in order in the last two innings to earn the complete game victory.
Brandon Downey suffered the loss for the Saints by only lasting one inning and giving up four runs on three hits with no strikeouts.
Alec Harris entered the game in the second and kept the Saints in the contest, going six innings and giving up two runs on four hits and striking out seven Hawk batters. Scheibel and
Tyler Catlett had the only two hits for the Saints in the game.
Neither team could their offense on track until Maryville broke through in the sixth inning of the second game. Saints starting pitcher #Louis Niemerg# helped his own cause by singling down the right field line with one out. Covert then came to the plate and was hit by a pitch to move Niemerg up to second base.
Garrett Taylor gave the Saints the lead with one swing as he launched his third home run of the year over the right center to give the Saints their first lead of the weekend at 3-0. Maryville added an insurance run in the eighth as Taylor added his fourth run batted in on the day with a sacrifice fly that scored
DeShawn Lindsey, who came in to pinch run after a Niemerg double. That run gave Maryville a 4-0 lead as
Justin Laffleur came in to slam the door on the Hawks.
Niemerg pitched 7.1 strong innings while striking out seven Hawk batters and scattering only six hits. Laffleur earned his first save of the season with his 1.2 innings pitched to help the Saints improve to 16-13 and 3-5 in the GLVC. Niemerg helped his cause at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a run scored while Scheibel added a pair of hits and Taylor drove in all four Saints runs.
The Saints hit the road on Tuesday, April 4, as Maryville heads to Lebanon, Ill. to face McKendree in a non-conference match-up starting at 2:00 p.m. and then they will continue the road trip next weekend for a four game series at Truman State in Kirksville, Mo. with the first game of the set beginning on Saturday, April 8, at noon.
