­­­­­­OZARK, MO --- The Prairie Stars (33-21) beat William Jewell in their first game of the day to stave off elimination, but fell to the top seed out of the west division, the Drury Panthers, in their second game of the day, and were eliminated from the tournament. UIS beat the Cardinals 6-2 behind a complete game from Ethan Howard, but fell 10-4 in the nightcap.

GAME ONE: ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD 6, WILLIAM JEWELL 2
UIS jumped out in front early on the Cardinals, as Cole Taylor lead off the second inning with a single and moved to second on a walk to Myles Hann. James Battley drove in the first run on the game on an RBI groundout two batters later.

In the fifth, UIS extended their lead, scoring three runs as the first three batters reached base, as John Sechen drove in two runs with a single, scoring Battley and Austin Muench. A bases loaded passed ball scored the final run of the inning for the Prairie Stars, pushing the lead to 4-0.

Michael Rothmund drove in the fifth run for the Prairie Stars with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh and Taylor drove in the final run for UIS in the ninth, as Rothmund and Taylor connected for back-to-back doubles.

Howard (6-5) surrendered a run in the ninth but threw a complete-game, giving up just two earned runs on seven hits, striking out seven. Trey Hannam and Taylor had two hits each while Sechen drove in two runs and six different Prairie Stars crossed the plate.

GAME TWO: DRURY 10, ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD 4
In their third straight elimination game, the Prairie Stars got down early, giving up two runs in the third and three in the fourth to trail the top-seeded Panthers 5-0. Drury crossed the plate twice more in the six to take a 7-0 lead before UIS plated their first run in the sixth.

Rothmund drew a one-out walk and moved up two bases on two wild pitches before coming into score on a single from Ben Schanding. Though Drury scored three runs in the top of the seventh, UIS came back with another run in the seventh on an RBI single from Zach Patterson.

Down 10-2, the Prairie Stars plated two more runs in the eighth on an RBI from Muench, scoring Taylor, who leadoff the inning with a double, while Schanding scored on an error from Drury. This made the score 10-4 where it became final.

Cameron Zunkel (3-3) took the loss for UIS, throwing 4.1 innings and giving up five runs while striking out four. Chase Lowman and Sam Geraci threw the final 2.1 innings for UIS, neither one surrendering a run in relief.
Taylor, Schanding, and Muench each had two hits while again, four different Prairie Stars crossed the plate.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The Prairie Stars will now await their fate as they look for an at-large bid to the NCAA Regional. You can watch the selection show here, which will air Sunday, May 14^th at 10 PM ET. The Prairie Stars were ranked 9^th in the latest NCAA Midwest Regional poll.