NKU will meet Missouri-St. Louis again Sunday afternoon.
Box score
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Northern Kentucky University dropped a 5-3 decision to Missouri-St. Louis in the third round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament on Saturday, setting up a Sunday showdown between the same two teams for a berth in the championship game.
Trevor Nathanson and Joel Ayala knocked in two runs apiece to spark Missouri-St. Louis, which improved to 32-20 and staved off elimination. The Tritons built an early 3-0 lead and rode the pitching of starter Austin Schuler (seven innings, three hits and three runs) to force another game with NKU on Sunday.
NKU (34-19) trailed 5-1 going into the eighth inning, but a two-run single by
Brad Clement cut the Missouri-St. Louis lead to 5-3. The Tritons, though, held on and defeated NKU for the first time in four attempts this season.
The Norse swept a doubleheader at Missouri-St. Louis in the regular season and also collected a win over the Tritons on Friday in the GLVC Tournament second round. It marked the Norse's first loss in the double-elimination GLVC Tournament.
NKU and Missouri-St. Louis meet again at noon Sunday, with the winner advancing to the championship game later that day to meet either Rockhurst or Indianapolis at 2:30 p.m.
The winner of the GLVC Tournament receives an automatic berth to next week's NCAA Division II Tournament.
NKU, playing in its final year of Division II, has won GLVC Tournament championships in 2002, '04, '06, '08 and '09.
