LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team split a doubleheader with the Bellarmine Knights on Saturday, 6-3 and 3-5, at Knights Field.

The Prairie Stars captured game one behind a six-run first inning. In the final game of the series, the Knights outlasted UIS over 13 innings to even the series with a 5-3 win.

Junior Jose Marin (Maturin, Venezuela) made his fifth start of the season and allowed just two runs over 3.2 innings of work. Senior Kyle Schildroth pitched the final 3.1 innings to earn his team-high seven victory of the year.

The Prairie Stars went to work in the top of the first with six runs. After a leadoff single by freshman Michael Rothmund (Lombard, Ill.), junior Adam Warda (Skokie, Ill.) smoked a double to left center to give UIS the lead. Two more singles pushed across another run for the visiting Prairie Stars.

UIS continued to poor it on, accumulating five hits and taking advantage of two Bellarmine errors to end the first inning with a 6-0 lead.

The Knights chipped away at the UIS lead with runs in the first, third and fourth innings, but the Prairie Stars' held on for the 6-3 win. Six different Prairie Stars recorded RBI in the game.

In the second game of the day, senior Alex Bradley (Peoria, Ill.) put the Prairie Stars on the board with a RBI in the top of the first.

Junior Matt Farrington (Orland Park, Ill.) pitched for UIS and scattered 12 hits over 9.1 innings of work. Farrington didn't allow a runner to advance past second base until the sixth inning.

Back-to-back singles to lead off inning for the Knights put runners on the corners with nobody out. Three more hits in the inning helped Bellarmine take a 3-1 lead heading into the top of the seventh.

The Prairie Stars got a run back in the seventh on a RBI-groundout by junior shortstop Kyle Hunsinger (Joliet, Ill.). Trailing 3-2 in the top of the ninth, UIS put the tying run on base with a leadoff walk. Three batters later with pinch-runner Casey Huebbe (Peru, Ill.) now on third base, Hunsinger delivered again, this time with a sacrifice fly to tie the game, 3-3.

UIS ran into trouble in the bottom of the tenth. Bellarmine loaded the bases with just one out. Junior Richard England (Centerville, Iowa) came in to pitch for the Prairie Stars and got the final two outs of the inning to keep the game going.

In the bottom of the 13th, the Knights ended the agme on a walk-off home run to give Bellarmine a 5-3 win.

The Prairie Stars wrap up the regular season next weekend against Southern Indiana.