The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team won its first-round GLVC Tournament game on Thursday afternoon in St. Charles, Mo. with a 5-4 victory over William Jewell. The win was the 40th of the season for the Prairie Stars, marking the third time in program history they hit that milestone.
 
UIS will now play Maryville on Friday at 4 p.m. in the next round of action. The games are taking place on the campus of Lindenwood University at the Lou Brock Sports Complex.
 
The Prairie Stars had to come-from-behind in the game, and were led by the bottom of their lineup and their bullpen.
 
A three-run fifth inning gave the Cardinals a 4-1 advantage at the midpoint of the game. UIS went to its bullpen in the sixth, and did not allow another run the rest of the way. That included the sixth inning when the Cardinals loaded the bases with two outs, but Brendan Anderson got a groundout to get out of trouble.
 
In the bottom half of that frame, UIS got back in the game with a three-run inning of its own. Anthony Deconcilis was hit by a pitch with one out, and Hunter Phelps reached on a two-base error. Back-to-back hits by Nick Mayerhofer and Asher Bradd made the score 4-3, and a RBI groundout by Brandon Bannon tied the contest.
 
Anderson pitched a scoreless inning in the seventh, setting up the offense to score the winning run. UIS loaded the bases with no outs, and Hunter Phelps hit a single through the right side to give the Prairie Stars the lead.
 
Cameron Zunkel entered the contest in the eighth and closed out the victory. He did not allow a base runner in the final two innings with a strikeout, three groundouts, and two fly outs. Anderson got the win, and, along with 2/3 of an inning by Matt Blaney, the bullpen threw four innings and allowed just two hits and two walks.
 
The seven-eighth-nine hitters for UIS combined to go seven-of-11 on the day with four runs and three RBI. Deconcilis had two hits and two runs, Phelps had three hits, one run, and one RBI, and Mayerhofer finished with two hits, two RBI, and one run.
 
UIS improves to 40-8 on the season. The Prairie Stars won a first-round GLVC Tournament game for their third straight time in the conference postseason.