MARION, Ill. – Maryville University fell to Lewis University in game 12 of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament on Saturday night. With a trip to the title game on the line, baseball stranded 11 runners on base and made four errors in the seventh inning to surrender a 3-0 lead in an eventual 6-3 final.
 
Lewis Recap
Maryville started Noah Arras on the mound with a chance to go to the winner-take-all championship game on Sunday and the right-handed senior worked around a two-out walk with his second strikeout of the inning in the bottom of the first.
 
In the top of the second, Matt Schuler led off with a walk, Colin Bergmann and Camden Ruby legged out infield singles, and Matt Arnold gave the team a 1-0 lead with a single into left field. Andy Bunton plated another run with a safety squeeze bunt back to the pitcher to make the lead 2-0.
 
Arras continued to throw up zeroes and did not allow a hit until the bottom of the fifth. Lewis led off the frame with a single but Arras forced a 5-4-3 ground ball double play and got a strikeout to end the inning with five scoreless.
 
The offense padded the lead in the top of the sixth on a pair of one-out walks from Camden Ruby and Arnold set the stage for a two-out RBI single from Jack Zebig.
 
In the bottom of the seventh, a Saint error and a single brought in Angelo Cantelo who cut the lead to 3-2 with a two-run double. Cantelo tried to score on an error in the next at-bat, but Bunton recovered the botched ground ball and fired home to nail the runner for the second out. Philip Reinhardt came on in relief of Arras and the defense made a third error in the inning. The lefty got a strikeout, walked a batter to load the bases, and forced a popout that was dropped for two more unearned runs. In total, the Flyers picked up five runs on three hits and four errors in the seventh to take a 5-3 lead.
 
Lewis added another run in the eighth and closed out a 6-3 victory with a scoreless inning from Jackson Bruno that gave him his fourth save of the season.
 
Winning Pitcher: D. Rosado (2-2)
Losing Pitcher: Philip Reinhardt (2-2)
Save: J. Bruno (4)
 
Batting Leaders
Jack Zebig: 2-for-4, RBI, BB
Matt Arnold: 1-for-3, RBI
 
Records:
Maryville: 36-16
Lewis: 29-25
 
What's Next?
The Saints will take on the Flyers in the "if necessary" game on Sunday, May 12, at 9 a.m., with another chance to get into the GLVC Championship game. If they get a win over the Flyers, they will take on the defending-champion Quincy University Hawks for the title at 12:30 p.m.
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