ROLLA, Mo. -- Missouri S&T overcame an early 5-0 deficit Tuesday afternoon in its Great Lakes Valley Conference baseball game with Rockhurst at the S&T Baseball Field by scoring eight unanswered runs, but gave up five unearned runs in the top of the eighth and ended up on the losing end of a 10-9 decision to the Hawks.

The loss allowed Rockhurst to take three of the four games in the series and dropped S&T to 9-7 in the suddenly tight GLVC West playoff race.

Rockhurst jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the time the Miners batted in the fifth, scoring three times in the third and twice in the fifth on Mike Walczuk's two-run homer.  The Hawks pulled starting pitcher Mark Himmelberg -- who started in the first game of the series on Friday -- after four innings and the Miners started rallying against the Hawks' bullpen in the fifth.

Drew Davenport (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West) and Brandon Cogan (Missouri City, Texas/Hightower) each greeted reliever Alex Seier with hits, then after the two were bunted over by Hunter Scheib (Lawrence, Kan./Free State), Davenport scored on a groundout by Will Morrison (Rolla, Mo./Rolla).  Ben Pieper (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) followed by homering over the fence in center to cut the lead to 5-3.

Pieper's home run was his eighth of the season, tying Matt Bryant's single-season mark for homers.  Bryant hit his eight home runs in the 1997 campaign.

S&T drew to within one in the sixth when Zac Helton (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette) scored on an infield hit by Scheib, then took the lead an inning later by scoring four times off four Rockhurst pitchers.

Pieper opened the inning by reaching on wild pitch after striking out and was moved ahead on Zac Carter's sacrifice bunt.  After moving to third on a wild pitch, Pieper scored on a passed ball as Sam Adams (Forsyth, Mo./Forsyth) drew a walk.

Moments later, the Miners loaded the bases and Cogan cleared them with a drive into the gap in left center for a three-run triple and an 8-5 S&T lead heading into the eighth inning.

But in the top of the eighth, an error with one out opened the door for the Hawks, who tied the game on a two-run double with two outs off the bat of pinch-hitter Brandon Tangney.  Ryan Porter followed Tangney's double with a single into short right to put Rockhurst back in front, then scored the Hawks' fifth run of the inning on a hit by Walczuk.

S&T got one of the runs back in the bottom of the eighth when Pieper drew a leadoff walk and later scored on a throwing error, but the Miners left the tying run on third.

Cogan opened the ninth by reaching on an infield single and getting second on a throwing error, then got balked to third by pitcher Patrick Chandler.  However, Chander was able to get two strikeouts and a pop out to escape the jam and secure the win for the Hawks.

Rockhurst outhit the Miners 16-12; Cogan and Pieper had three hits apiece for the Miners (12-21 overall, 9-7 GLVC).  Alex Dunn (Independence, Mo./Truman) was tagged with the loss despite not allowing an earned run.

The Miners will face Bellarmine in a four-game weekend series in Louisville, Ky., beginning Saturday.