Missed scoring chances proved costly to the Missouri S&T baseball team Tuesday afternoon as it dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Arkansas Tech at the S&T Baseball Field. ATU took game one 5-4 and shut out the Miners 2-0 in the nightcap.

 

In the first game, the Miner spotted the Wonder Boys a run in the second inning, but tied the score in the third on a sacrifice fly by Eaf Redden (Gunter, Texas/Gunter). S&T had the bases loaded with one out in the inning, but only managed the one run.

 

The Miners loaded the bases again in the fourth and was able to take a 2-1 lead on an infield single by Andrew Vance (Stilwell, Kan./Blue Valley ), but that would end up being the only run they would score in that frame.

 

Arkansas Tech strung together five hits in the fifth inning off S&T's Andrew Page (Stoney Creek, Ont./Cardinal Newman) to put four runs on the board and take a 5-2 lead.   The Miners then got the tying run to the plate in the sixth but saw that threat end with a ground out.

 

After Dan Trenner (Springfield, Ohio/Springfield South) set ATU down in order in the seventh, the Miners mounted a rally in the bottom half of the frame.  Brandon Cogan (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower) had a leadoff single, then pinch-hitter Hunter Scheib (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) bunted his way on base. Cody Bass (Chattanooga, Okla./Chattanooga) followed with a hit to load the bases and Drew Davenport (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West) greeted reliever Josh Floriani with a hit up the middle to score one run.

 

A passed ball allowed Scheib to score and moved the tying and winning runs into scoring positions, but Floriani got out of the inning with a strikeout and a ground ball.

 

Bass had three of the Miners' 12 hits in game one while Davenport had a pair of singles. However, the Miners stranded 10 runners on base in the contest.

 

Arkansas Tech got both of its runs in game two in the third inning off Drew Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield), who allowed only three hits in the five innings he worked in relief. ATU got its first run on a wild pitch, then got its second on a ground out and left the rest to pitchers Cody Hatman and Karl Whitley, who shut out the Miners on just three hits.

 

Pyles, who entered the game in the third, allowed hits to the first two batters he faced but only one more for the balance of his outing.

 

S&T had scoring opportunities in the fourth when it got two runners on base and in the sixth with a runner on second, but in the latter instance, Will Morrison (Rolla, Mo./Rolla)'s long fly ball was knocked down by the wind short of the track.

 

Vance, Redden and Bass had the Miner hits in the nightcap.

 

S&T (4-7) will play host to Upper Iowa in a three-game series this weekend, beginning with Saturday's noon doubleheader at the S&T Baseball Field.