ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team went toe-to-toe with the defending NCAA Division II national champions in its Great Lakes Valley Conference openers Saturday, but Southern Indiana came away with a pair of narrow victories by scores of 2-1 and 3-1 in eight innings at the S&T Baseball Field.

The Miners nearly pulled out a split of the twinbill, but a seventh inning uprising with two outs ended when a ball off the bat of Will McCord (Kingman, Ariz./Kingman HS) – that was heading into right field with a runner on second base – hit a Miner baserunner to end the inning. Given new life, the Screaming Eagles scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the eighth to pull out the win.

USI got the lead in the nightcap in the second inning on an RBI single off the bat of Jarrod Rose, then S&T tied the contest in the fourth. Clint Wobbe (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University HS) singled to the opposite field to open the inning, moved to second on a balk with two outs and came in to score on another opposite field hit off the bat of Lee Voth-Gaeddert (Hesston, Kan./Hesston HS).

Nolan Korn (Cedar Hill, Mo./Northwest), who entered the game in the fourth inning, allowed just one hit over the first four innings he worked to keep the game tied. He pitched around a leadoff walk and an error in the fifth, then got out of the seventh after Benshell Garcia reached on a bunt single to open that inning.

After the first two Miners were retired in the seventh, Nick Burke (Good Hope, Ill./West Prairie HS) singled to left and Grant Brasher (Bridgeton, Mo./DeSmet Jesuit) singled to right to give S&T a chance to pull out the game. McCord followed with a smash towards the hole between first and second that could have scored Burke with the winning run, but the ball caromed off Brasher into short right field, bringing about an interference call that ended the inning.

The Eagles used the second chance to win it in the eighth, getting a leadoff double from Tyler Choate and taking advantage of an error on a sacrifice attempt to score the go-ahead run. Rose got a two-out RBI single for the second run of the inning.

Korn took the loss in relief, despite allowing just three hits and no earned runs in his five innings of work. Voth-Gaeddert and Brasher had two hits each for the Miners, who outhit USI 8-6 in the nightcap.

The first game featured a pitcher's duel between the Miners' Alex Dunn (Independence, Mo./Truman) and USI's Trevor Leach, with both pitchers firing complete games in the 2-1 contest. Dunn gave up only five hits and struck out five while allowing just two runs – one earned, but Leach – who was the winning pitcher for USI in the national championship game last season – gave up just an unearned run in the eighth inning and struck out six in his seven-hit complete game.

The Eagles took the lead in the second on an RBI groundout off the bat of Adam Enright, then tacked on a run in the fourth on Enright's sacrifice fly.

S&T missed a scoring chance in the third when it had runners on second and third with one out but couldn't get a run across, but did get on the scoreboard in the eighth. McCord singled with one out, then a throwing error on a potential double play ball put runners on first and second. With two outs, Ben Pieper (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) rapped a single to left to score McCord to cut the lead in half.

However, Leach wiggled out of the eighth and retired the Miners in order in the ninth to preserve the one-run win.

Pieper had two of the Miners' seven hits as S&T outhit the Screaming Eagles 7-5.

The Miners, 6-8 overall and 0-2 in the GLVC, will host Kentucky Wesleyan Sunday at noon at the S&T Baseball Field.