EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Missouri S&T outfielder Thomas McCormick (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) broke a Miner career record Saturday afternoon, but little else went the Miners' way as they were swept by Southern Indiana by scores of 9-2 and 6-3 to open the four-game series.

 

The second half of the series will be played in Rolla Tuesday at 1 p.m., as rainy weather in the forecast that forced Saturday's twinbill to be moved east to the USI campus continues to show rain for the next two days in both cities.

 

Southern Indiana got first inning leads in both games Saturday. In the opener, the Eagles got on the board on a two-out triple by Tyler Choate and a double off the bat of Alex Thieroff.

 

The Eagles opened a four-run fourth inning with four straight hits off Miner starter Andrew Page (Stoney Creek, Ont./Cardinal Newman), the last of them a two-run triple by Wes Fink.

 

S&T got on the scoreboard in the fifth when Andrew Vance (Stilwell, Kan./Blue Valley ) singled with one out and scored two batters later on a double by Will Morrison (Rolla, Mo./Rolla). McCormick followed with a hit up the middle to score Morrison for his 113^th career run batted in at Missouri S&T, setting a new all-time record.

 

The Miners missed a scoring chance in the seventh, then the Eagles put the game away with two runs apiece in the eighth and ninth innings.

 

Morrison and McCormick, who drove in the Miner runs, had three hits apiece for S&T. Page took the loss despite striking out five in seven innings of work.

 

In the nightcap, the Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the second inning as they scored three times in the first and twice in the second.   USI got its three runs in the first as it strung together five hits in the frame, then scored two unearned runs in the second after a dropped foul ball kept Caleb Ehmke alive at the plate and he proceeded to hit a two-run homer.

 

S&T clawed back into the contest with a run in the bottom of the second, which came home on an infield single by Vance. The Miners then got a leadoff homer from Eaf Redden (Gunter, Texas/Gunter) in the fourth and another run in the inning on a double by Tim Kerouac (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bishop McNamara) and a triple by Brandon Cogan (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower).

 

However, the Miners would only get one more runner on base against relievers Trevor Leach and Shaun Larsen over the final 3 1/3 innings of the contest. Southern Indiana added one more run in the sixth for the final outcome.

Redden and Cody Bass each had two of the Miners' seven hits in the second game.  Starting pitcher Zach Gronek was charged with the loss.