SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – For the fourth time in the last week, Missouri S&T's baseball team got caught up in a high scoring affair, but came up on the losing end of Sunday afternoon's contest with Ouachita Baptist by a final score of 13-10 at the Heffington Optical Classic.

 

The Miners, playing in their fourth straight game in which the two teams combined to score at least 19 runs, banged out a season-high 21 hits on Sunday and held an 8-5 lead through five innings Sunday. However, the Tigers took the lead with four runs in the sixth and tacked on four insurance runs over the final three innings to come away with the victory.

 

S&T jumped on top in the opening inning when Hunter Scheib (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) belted a two-run homer off OBU starter Mark Cain. The Tigers answered with three in the second and held that lead into the fourth before the Miners knocked Cain out of the contest during a four-run outburst.

 

After back-to-back singles by Sam Adams (Forsyth, Mo./Forsyth) and Zac Helton (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette), Grant Brasher (Bridgeton, Mo./DeSmet Jesuit) doubled to left center to score Adams to tie the game at three. After Brandon Cogan (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower) grounded out, Scheib hit his second homer of the game to give the Miners a 6-3 lead.

 

OBU trimmed the lead to one in the fifth on Landon Flax's two-run single, but S&T got the two runs right back in the bottom of the inning. The first scored on an infield single by Cogan, then Scheib followed with a sacrifice fly to score Brasher, giving him six runs batted in for the day.

 

However, the Miners' second three-run lead was short-lived, as the Tigers tied the score off Miner starter Chris Bowe (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) in top of the sixth, then took the lead later that inning on Will Gowdy's three-run homer.

 

The Tigers added two in the seventh and two more in the ninth to extend the lead to 13-8 before S&T mounted a rally in the bottom of the frame.

 

Ben Pieper (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic)'s two-run double with two outs cut the lead to three and allowed the Miners to get the tying run to the plate, but OBU reliever Nick Holtgrieve retired Matt Kempin (Wichita, Kan./Trinity Academy) to end the contest.

 

Pieper and Will Morrison (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) each had four hits for the Miners, while Cogan and Adams had three apiece. Scheib drove in six runs and scored three times for S&T, who fell to 2-12 on the season.

 

The Miners will return to action Saturday when they open their home schedule against Wisconsin-Parkside at the S&T Baseball Field. Game time for the doubleheader will be at noon.