Box Score The William Jewell baseball team saw their 2017 season come to an end on Saturday afternoon with a 6-2 loss to Illinois Springfield on day three of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament in Ozark, Mo. The Cardinals end the year 22-28 overall and went 13-13 during GLVC regular season play. 

The Prairie Stars took an early lead in the top of the second inning scoring one run on two hits and a walk. The Cardinals threatened in the bottom of the third and fourth innings putting two runners on base in both frames but a pop out and ground out ended the rallies. 

From there, UIS took advantage, scoring three runs on three hits and a Cardinal error in the fifth, before adding a run in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to 5-0. 

The Cardinals got on the board in the bottom of the eighth as Brendan Carney reached on a walk and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Brad Jelinek to bring the score to 5-1. 

UIS added an insurance run in the ninth to make it 6-1 before the Cardinals put together a small rally in the bottom half of the frame. Tanner Foerschler led off with a double followed by an error to put runners on the corners with no outs. A sacrifice fly from Nate Pecota scored Foerschler to bring the score to the final of 6-2. 

The Cardinals were outhit 9-7 led by two from Foerschler, while Jelinek and Pecota each recorded one RBI. 

Jewell starter Mack Stephenson (4-1) suffered the first loss of his career, working 4.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits, while striking out two. Dalton Gulick tossed 1.2 scoreless innings while Derek Thurman, Garrison Fields, and Wyatt Schulz also appeared on the hill. 

The Cardinals will lose a large portion of the line up to graduation but will return every day starters Pecota, Carney, and Ben Pautler, along with a multitude of young pitchers in 2018.