CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Saint Louis erupted for six runs in the second inning and defeated Charlotte 6-4 in game two of an Atlantic 10 Conference doubleheader Friday at DL Phillips Complex.

Charlotte won the opener 4-2.

The split kept Saint Louis (23-19, 11-7 A-10), which has won nine of 11, in sixth place in the conference standings, one-half game ahead of Dayton (10-7). The top six teams at the conclusion of the regular season advance to the A-10 Championship May 8-11 in Amherst, Mass.

Charlotte is 21-25 overall and 7-9 in the A-10.

Kelsey Biggs sparked the six-run outburst with a leadoff single, and Jessica Van Nostrand and Alyson Brand followed with singles to load the bases. Two consecutive force outs at home gave Charlotte a chance to get out of the inning unscathed, but a walk to Laney Kneib put the Billikens on top 1-0.

After Jessica Buschjost made it 2-0 with a single, Lindsay Friedman delivered a bases-clearing double that boosted the lead to 5-0. Laura Bohning walked, and Biggs recorded her second hit of the inning, a single that plated Friedman for a 6-0 SLU cushion.

Charlotte scored two runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth off Kneib. The 49ers brought the tying run to the plate in the sixth, but reliever Brianna Lore escaped the jam and went on to pitch a 1-2-3 seventh to pick up her fourth save.

Kneib (12-6) won her second straight decision. She allowed five hits and two walks in five innings.

Buschjost and Van Nostrand joined Biggs with two hits apiece, while Bohning and Erin Harcar each collected a hit.

Charlotte struck quickly in game one, scoring twice in the first inning, but Saint Louis pulled even in the third. Friedman clubbed her team-leading sixth home run of the season, a one-out shot to left, to cut the 49ers' lead in half. After Bohning singled and Van Nostrand was hit by a pitch, Biggs doubled to center to score Bohning with the tying run.

The 49ers regained the lead right away with a run in the bottom of the third and made it 4-2 with another marker in the fourth. The Billikens put the tying runs aboard in the fifth and sixth, and loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, but did not score.

Bohning also collected a double, and Biggs added a single. Buschjost, Harcar and Elizabeth Everingham all singled.