Game 1    Game 2

It's not too often that the temperature is in the 70s for a UW-Parkside home baseball game. Just as rare is a southerly wind, which howled out to left-center field, playing havoc with the baseball. The scores reflected the elements with Missouri-St. Louis winning the opener, 12-2, before the winds picked up and the Rangers took Game 2, 20-17.

UW-Parkside's Brad Liermann got the last swing in Friday's nightcap. He made good use of it, launching one in the jet-stream to left-center, capping a five-run bottom of the seventh and giving the Rangers the win.

The wild second game saw each team pound out 17 hits. Each team was charged with four errors.

The biggest inning was the Tritons' six-run frame in the top of the fifth. The team had four crooked numbers in all and took a 17-15 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.

Four players had three hits for the Rangers and included Mike Pena, Dave Watson, Tyler Gieseking and Mike Bjerke. All four of those players belted home runs.

UMSL picked up a pair of round-trippers off the bat of Erik Walk, who ended up as the losing pitcher.

Josh Hudnut tossed a scoreless inning in the top of the seventh and picked up the win.

In the opener, Alex Zarek was the starting and losing pitcher. The Rangers led, 2-1 after two innings, but a three-spot by the Tritons in the top of the third gave them the lead for good. Jon Hasser homered for the Rangers.

Parkside is now 10-19 overall, having reached double digits in wins for the first time in three seasons. The team is 5-9 in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.

UMSL is 6-23 overall and 3-11 in the league.

The two teams will have at it in another twinbill Saturday, starting at noon.