Missouri S&T opened its weekend series with Missouri-St. Louis Saturday on a winning note, getting three hits from Thomas McCormick (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) and another strong pitching performance from Andrew Page (Stoney Creek, Ont./Cardinal Newman) to take a 9-2 win at the S&T Baseball Field.

 

Game two of the doubleheader was suspended after five innings with the score tied 8-8; that game will be completed Sunday at 11 a.m., prior to the scheduled doubleheader between the teams.

 

The Tritons – the home team for all four games this weekend as the series was moved from St. Louis due to unplayable field conditions at UMSL – took the lead in game one on Mike Hoosen's home run off Page in the bottom of the third.

 

However, the Miners answered right back in the fourth as Drew Davenport (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West)'s two-out double into the gap that scored Eaf Redden (Gunter, Texas/Gunter) and Thomas McCormick (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood).

 

Redden and McCormick sparked S&T's four-run outburst in the sixth that broke the game open. Redden led off the inning with a hit, then scored when McCormick tripled to the fence in right center. After a walks to Cody Bass (Chattanooga, Okla./Chattanooga) and Davenport, Will Morrison (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) singled up the middle to drive in a pair to put the Miners up 5-1.

 

S&T added another run in the sixth on an RBI ground out off the bat of Tim Kerouac (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bishop McNamara), then tallied two more in the eighth and another in the ninth.

 

Page allowed five hits and struck out eight in eight innings of work to improve his record to 4-2. McCormick had a single, double and triple for his three hits, while Redden and Brandon Cogan (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower) had two hits apiece as the Miners opened a series against a Great Lakes Valley Conference team with a win for the fourth straight time.

 

In the second game, S&T jumped on UMSL starter Gurdine Ackline for five runs in the opening inning. The Miners got their first two runs on an RBI single by McCormick and a sacrifice fly by Davenport, then later in the inning, Zach Carter (Perkins, Okla./Perkins-Tryon) belted a three-run homer to wrap up the scoring in the first.

 

The Tritons got a run back in the first, but Redden homered to open the third to get the lead back to five. UMSL scored twice in the fourth to trim the lead to 6-3, but the Miners got two unearned runs in the fifth to regain their five-run advantage.

 

An dropped fly ball with two outs allowed the first run to score, then Bass delivered a run-scoring hit to give S&T an 8-3 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.

 

UMSL, however, scored five times in its half of the fifth – four of the runs being unearned – and tied the game on Ryne Moleski's two-run single on an 0-2 pitch with two outs. After that inning ended, the game was halted due to pending darkness.

 

The Miners have seven hits through the first five innings, two of them from Bass, while Carter has driven in three runs with the first inning home run.