Game 1 Game 2
The Ranger baseball team has spent the better part of 2 months, riding buses, not being able to play in front of the home fans, and enduring subsequent poor results. The final trip of the season, to O' Fallon, Missouri, was well worth it. The Rangers took both ends of a doubleheader against hosting Missouri-St. Louis, winning 4-3 and 4-0, in upping their win streak to three.
In the opener,
Tom Rawski pitched six scoreless innings before running into trouble in the final frame. He was relieved by
Todd Lorenz, who returned to a closer role which made him a star in the Great Lakes Valley Conference as an underclassman.
The Rangers led, 4-0, heading into that final inning. The team built its lead scoring single runs in four separate innings.
In the top of the first inning,
Dan Spino doubled down the right field line scoring the first run. The team added another in the next inning when
Cooper Sniatynski drew a bases-loaded walk.
A sacrifice fly off the bat of
Nic Izquierdo in the fourth inning plated
Eric Chappell who walked. The final run came across in the fifth inning on and RBI single by A.J. Marquardt.
Game 2 was all UW-Parkside. A combined three-hitter from
Nic Larson,
David Paulus and Lorenz blanked the Tritons. Larson worked the first four and was the winning pitcher. He gave up a scant hit while striking out three and walking no one. Paulus worked two innings of scoreless relief before Lorenz closed it out in the ninth.
The Rangers scored three runs in the second inning and one in the fifth.
John Pulera hit what turned out to be the game-winning RBI with a double. Chappell, Izquierdo and Sniatynski also drove in runs.
UW-Parkside has four games left on the schedule, all at its home, Oberbruner Field. The team will host Kentucky Wesleyan in a doubleheader both Saturday and Sunday, starting at noon.