MONTICELLO, Ark. – For the second day in succession, the Missouri S&T baseball team dropped the first game of a doubleheader with Arkansas-Monticello – only to come back and take the nightcap to earn a split of the twinbill. The Miners won the second game 4-3 after suffering a 9-6 loss in the opener.

S&T saw the Boll Weevils eliminate a 3-0 Miner lead in the nightcap with a run in the fifth and two runs in the sixth, but won the game with a tally in the top of the seventh on Ben Pieper (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic)'s RBI single. Drew Schrader (Troy, Mo./Troy Buchanan HS), who got the save for S&T in Saturday's win, pitched around a one-out walk in the seventh to pick up the win in relief.

The Miners jumped on top in the opening inning when Josh Caffrey (Burlington, Iowa/Burlington HS) singled with two outs to score Drew Davenport (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West), who reached base with a one-out single. S&T tried to get a second run home on the play, but Zach Carter (Perkins, Okla./Perkins-Tryon) was throw out at the plate to end the inning.

S&T added two more in the second, beginning when Eric Van Dyke (Longmont, Colo./Silver Creek) led off with a double down the line in right. He was moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on Nick Burke (Good Hope, Ill./West Prairie HS)'s squeeze bunt. Davenport later added a sacrifice fly that scored Jake Brower (Wentzville, Mo./Timberland).

Chris Bowe (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) got the start for the Miners in the second half and held the Boll Weevils scoreless over the first four innings on just one hit, which came with one out in the fourth. UAM got on the scoreboard in the fifth on Jon Tatum's leadoff homer, then tied the score an inning later when Tatum singled home a pair of runs.

The Miners outhit Arkansas-Monticello 7-5 in the second game, with Caffrey getting two of the S&T hits.

The first game was a high scoring affair in the early innings, with the Miners tallying three in the first and UAM answering with five.

S&T's first inning scoring opened with an unearned run, as Pieper reached on an error to score Davenport. Another error later in the inning allowed Carter to score, then Lee Voth-Gaeddert (Hesston, Kan./Hesston HS) added an RBI single to give Miner starter Kyle Robertson (Granite City, Ill./Granite City) a three-run lead when he took the mound.

However, UAM had eight consecutive hitters reach base in the bottom half of the inning as it put its five runs on the scoreboard. Tatun had a two-run double and Tino Trujillo had a two-run single to account for four of the runs.

The Miners got a run back in the third on an RBI single by Voth-Gaeddert that scored Pieper – who had led off the frame with a double – but the Boll Weevils scored an unearned run in the bottom half and tacked on two more runs in the fourth.

S&T closed the gap to 8-6 with a pair of runs in the fifth after the first two hitters were retired.   The first run scored on an error on a ball hit by Grant Brasher (Bridgeton, Mo./DeSmet Jesuit), which was followed by an RBI single by Burke to trim the lead to two.   UAM added an unearned run off Miner reliever John Auble (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South), who gave up just one hit in three innings in his first collegiate appearance.

Voth-Gaeddert had three of the Miners' nine hits in the opener, while Davenport had two hits and also reached base three times.  The Miners outhit the Boll Weevils 9-8 as they had an advantage in that category in three of the four games of the weekend series.

S&T, 4-2 on the season, will return to Arkansas next weekend to face Harding in a three-game series in Searcy, Ark. The teams are slated to play a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday.