By: John Kean, Sports Information Director
ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T kept its hopes of qualifying for the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament alive Tuesday afternoon, pulling out a
7-6 win in the second game of its doubleheader with Quincy after the Hawks took the opener by a count of
6-3.
With the split, the Miners remain a game and a half behind Quincy for third place in the GLVC's West Division and are percentage points ahead of Rockhurst for fourth. S&T will close its conference slate this weekend with a four-game series at Missouri-St. Louis, while Quincy hosts 16th-ranked Southern Indiana and Rockhurst plays at Maryville in four-game sets.
The Miners took a 5-0 lead in the nightcap as they were aided by two Quincy errors in the frame. The inning started with a single from
Sam Adams (Forsyth, Mo./Forsyth), followed by a sacrifice bunt.
Drew Davenport (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West) singled to center to score Adams, then an error on the play allowed him to move ahead to second. With two outs,
Brandon Cogan (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower) doubled to bring home Davenport.
Louie Joseph (Bloomington, Ill./Central Catholic) followed Cogan's double with the Miners' fourth hit of the inning to score another run, then a pair of wild pitches and another Hawk error allowed him to cross the plate later in the inning.
Quincy answered right back with two runs in the third, a single tally in the fourth and two in the fifth on a two-run homer by Justin Dunning to tie the score.
The Miners were able to retake the lead in the bottom half of the fifth, taking advantage of some wildness from QU starter Travis Ruppel. Adams was hit by a pitch with one out and moved to second on a passed ball. After moving along to third on a fly out by
Caleb Smith (Calgary, Alta./Central Memorial ), Adams scored with Ruppel unleashed a wild pitch.
The Hawks tied the score again in the seventh on Brett Zurliene's leadoff homer, but the Miners got their winning rally in the eighth after the first batter was retired.
Tim Kerouac (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bishop McNamara) drew a walk, then Cogan reached on an infield single and Joseph drew a walk to load the bases.
Will Morrison (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) hit a sacrifice fly off reliever Jared Fisher to bring in Kerouac with the go-ahead run.
Alex Dunn (Independence, Mo./Truman), who threw the final four innings for S&T to get the win, retired the Hawks in order in the ninth to wrap up the victory to move the Miners to 12-16 in the GLVC and 17-31 overall.
Cogan and Davenport had two hits apiece for the Miners, who had nine hits in the nightcap.
In the opener, the Miners'
Zach Carter (Perkins, Okla./Perkins-Tryon) drove in the first two runs to give S&T a 2-0 lead through four innings. Carter doubled in the first to bring home
Hunter Scheib (Lawrence, Kan./Free State), then opened the bottom of the fourth by hitting the first pitch over the fence in left to double the lead.
The Hawks, however, took advantage of an error in the top of the fifth on a potential inning-ending double play ball to score four runs and take the lead. Quincy loaded the bases with three straight hits after the first hitter was retired, but after getting the out at second on Wade Koester's ground ball to short, the throw to first was wild and two runs scored to tie the game.
Two more hits followed, the second coming from Fabian Oeschsle to drive in the go-ahead runs for the Hawks.
Quincy added two in the sixth, taking advantage of another Miner error with one out in the inning. The miscue was followed by three consecutive singles, the last of them off the bat of Zurliene that brought home the two runs.
S&T scored again in the sixth on Carter's second homer of the afternoon; he finished with three of the Miners' seven hits and drove in runs with each of them. Freshman
Kyle Robertson (Granite City, Ill./Granite City) suffered the loss despite allowing just two earned runs in 4 2/3 innings.
