(LEBANON, Ill., May 4)—The McKendree University baseball team closed out the home portion of its 2016 schedule Wednesday afternoon with an 11-3 loss to the University of Missouri-St. Louis at Hypes Field.
 
The visiting Tritons used a five-run fifth inning to take the lead for good and pulled away over the final four innings to collect the victory. McKendree slips to 14-31 overall and will be on the road for its final Great Lakes Valley Conference series of the season this weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. The Bearcats and Rangers will finish up the regular season Saturday and Sunday with doubleheaders in Kenosha, Wis., with first pitch set for noon each day.
 
Against UMSL, McKendree rapped out 13 hits on the day. Senior catcher/outfielder Connor Davault (Farmington, MO/Farmington) and junior first baseman Keith Rogers (Marshall, IL/Marshall) (pictured) each had three hits in the contest, while senior infielder Adam Kunkel (Red Bud, IL/Red Bud) added a pair of hits. Junior infielder Isaac Fisher (Washington, IL/Washington) drove in a pair of runs with a third-inning double.
 
Missouri-St. Louis (26-20) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a solo home run by Tanner Hudson before McKendree knotted the score in the third. Kunkel was hit by the first pitch of the frame and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Two batters later, Rogers was hit by a pitch before Davault stepped in and lifted an RBI single to left field, plating Kunkel with the tying run.
 
The Bearcats grabbed their only lead of the afternoon with a pair of runs in the fourth inning. Junior catcher Chris Deaville (Rantoul, IL/Rantoul) singled down the left-field line with one out before Kunkel doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Fisher came up with two outs and drilled a two-run double to deep center field to push McKendree out in front at 3-1.
 
In the top of the fifth, UMSL took advantage of three Bearcat errors to push five runs across the plate to regain the lead for good at 6-3. The Tritons added two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh before closing out the scoring with two runs in the ninth.
 
Junior right-hander Terry Deaville (Rantoul, IL/Rantoul) allowed two earned runs on six hits in four-plus innings of work in picking up the mound loss for McKendree. Deaville walked two batters and struck out four.