Liberty, Mo. –  The Maryville baseball team dropped both ends of a Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader to William Jewell College Saturday afternoon in Liberty, Mo. The Saints fell in the first game of the day, 5-4 and then saw a late inning rally fall short in the night cap as the Cardinals held on to win 6-4.
 
The Saints broke out to an early lead in the second inning as Louis Niemerg singled through the left side and scored as Dalton Schumer drilled his third home run of the year over the left field wall to give Maryville a 2-0 advantage. After William Jewell tied the game with runs in the second and fourth innings, Maryville regained the lead in the top of the sixth as Danny Covert opened the frame by getting hit by a pitch and then moved to third on a throwing error. Covert then came around to score on a Niemerg single to give the Saints a 3-2 advantage. Garrett Taylor extended the Maryville lead in the seventh with his fourth homer of the year to give the Saints a 4-2 advantage, but the Cardinals battled back with a three run uprising in the home half of the seventh to earn the walk-off victory.
 
Justin Laffleur suffered his second loss of the season pitching a third of an inning and giving up three runs on a pair of hits. Taylor and Niemerg paced the Saints offense with two hits and a run batted in each while Schumer chipped in with two more RBI's in the loss.
 
The Cardinals opened up the final game of the series with two runs in the first and a single run in the third to grab a 3-0 lead. The Saints got the bats going in the top of the fourth as Niemerg, Schumer, and Cody Klotz hit consecutive doubles to cut the William Jewell lead to 3-2.
 
William Jewell extended the lead to 5-2 in the sixth inning, but Maryville mounted a comeback in the top of the eighth as Tyler Catlett started things off with a single to center field and scored as Mitch Carriger drilled his team high 10th home run of the year to right center to cut the Cardinals lead to 5-4.  William Jewell scored an insurance run in the home half of the eighth to extend the lead to 6-4. The Saints tried to rally in the ninth as Zack Ruckman smacked a double down the left field line and moved up to third as Covert reached base on an error to put runners at the corners. Carriger then came to the plate and was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but the Cardinals were able to get a strikeout to end the game and earn a series split.
 
Niemerg pitched 5.1 innings while giving up five runs on 10 hits to fall to 3-3 on the year. Catlett and Schumer led the way for the Saints at the plate with two hits each while Carriger added a pair of RBI's as the Saints fell to 20-18 and 7-9 in conference play.
 
The Saints return home to Weber Field on Saturday, April 22, to take on Quincy University in a four-game series with the opener slated to start at noon.