KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri S&T blew out to a big lead in the early innings Friday night at Rockhurst, rolling to a 14-5 win as it continued its recent run of success against the Hawks.

 

The Miners, who beat the Hawks for the fifth time in the last six meetings, opened up a 14-0 lead for starting pitcher Andrew Page (Stoney Creek, Ont./Cardinal Newman) by the time he took the mound for the bottom of the third inning. S&T scored twice in the first, then put seven runs on the board in the second and five more in the third to turn the game into a rout.

 

Brandon Cogan (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower) led off the game with an infield single and scored on a two-out triple off the bat of Eaf Redden (Gunter, Texas/Gunter). Redden would come home moments later on an infield hit by Cody Bass (Chattanooga, Okla./Chattanooga) to give S&T a 2-0 lead.

 

Some wildness from Rockhurst starter Frank Allen opened the door to the Miners' big second inning. Cogan and Drew Davenport (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West) drew walks with one out, then both runners advanced on a wild pitch. Thomas McCormick (Kingwood, Texas/Kingwood) brought in Cogan with a double, then Redden doubled home two to extend the lead to 5-0.

 

After Will Morrison (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) singled with two outs, another wild pitch by Allen scored Redden and a walk that followed to Tim Kerouac (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bishop McNamara) ended his night. Hunter Scheib (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) then greeted reliever Ben Barnhart with a three-run homer to give S&T a nine-run advantage.

 

The Miners put five more on the board in the third, starting with a sacrifice fly by Redden to score McCormick, who had doubled with one out and went to third on the fourth of five Hawk wild pitches in the game.

 

Scheib drew a bases-loaded walk for the second run of the inning, Andrew Vance (Stilwell, Kan./Blue Valley ) drove in two with a hit and the final run scored as the result of an error.

 

Page, the recipient of the offensive explosion, allowed only four hits over seven innings to improve his record to 5-3 on the year. He also struck out seven to break his own S&T single season record for strikeouts as he has fanned 69 hitters on the year.

 

Morrison finished with three hits for the Miners, while McCormick, Redden and Bass all had two hits apiece. The Miners finished with 13 hits in the contest.

 

Rockhurst (32-16), who is battling Southern Indiana for the lead in the GLVC's West Division, scored a run in the fourth, two in the fifth and two in the ninth.

 

S&T (14-29) and Rockhurst will continue the weekend series with a doubleheader Saturday afternoon.