ST. LOUIS, Mo. – With one week to go in the regular season, Missouri S&T's baseball team finds itself atop the standings in the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division. The Miners reached the top spot Saturday by completing a sweep of a four-game series at Maryville University, winning the opener 5-2 and holding off a furious Saint rally in the nightcap for an 8-7 victory.

The Miners led 8-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth in the nightcap, but saw Maryville draw to within one in the ninth with the tying and winning runs on base. Harry Dunsford (St. Louis, Mo./Mehlville) picked up his second save of the afternoon to give S&T its school record 24^th win of the season – the Miners are 24-15 overall – and its 17^th win in GLVC play against seven losses.

At 17-7 in the GLVC, the Miners are ahead of 18-8 Quincy by percentage points (S&T is at .708 to Quincy's .692) heading into the final week of regular season play. In addition, the sweep moves the Miners closer to their first post-season berth in 14 years as they seek to earn their first berth to the GLVC Tournament.

In the opener, the Miners scored in five of the seven innings – scoring once in each of them – to pick up the victory.

S&T got runs in each of the first three frames, scoring in the first when Andy Hall (Rolla, Mo./Rolla HS) reached on an infield single and Josh Caffrey (Burlington, Iowa/Burlington HS) doubled to right center to bring him home. Maryville tied the game with a run in the bottom half of the inning, but S&T regained the lead in the second when Zach Carter (Perkins, Okla./Perkins-Tryon) – who doubled to open the inning – scored on a ground out by Clint Wobbe (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University HS).

The Miners got on the board in the third when Hall walked, stole second, went to third on a passed ball and came home on another passed ball to give them a 3-1 lead.

S&T extended its lead to three in the sixth when Sam Adams (Forsyth, Mo./Forsyth) single with two outs and scored on a triple by Nick Burke (Good Hope, Ill./West Prairie HS). The Saints scored in the sixth to cut the lead to one, but the Miners got that run back in the seventh when Will McCord (Kingman, Ariz./Kingman HS) led off with a double, moved to third on an infield out and scored on a passed ball.

Chris Bowe (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) threw the first six innings for the Miners to pick up the win and even his mark at 3-3, while Harry Dunsford (St. Louis, Mo./Mehlville) retired the Saints in order in the seventh to record his third save of the season. Bowe struck out five and scattered six hits.

S&T outhit Maryville 8-6 in the opener, with Caffrey getting two of the Miners' eight hits.

The Miners grabbed the lead in the nightcap in the second, getting a leadoff double from Carter to start things off. He was sacrificed to third and scored on a passed ball. S&T loaded the bases later in the second after Carter crossed the plate, but was unable to add to the lead.

Maryville, in turn, touched the Miners for a pair of runs in the bottom of the second when Andy Mariani singled home a pair of runs off S&T starter Alex Dunn (Independence, Mo./Truman). However, the Miners knotted the score in the fourth when Burke reached on an infield hit with one out, then stole second and scored on a hit by Wobbe.

Dunn induced double play balls to get him out of the fourth and fifth innings, then the Miners broke loose with a four-run sixth inning to take control of the contest.

With one out, Grant Brasher (Bridgeton, Mo./DeSmet Jesuit) was hit by a pitch and that was followed by a hit off the bat of Burke that sent Brasher to third. Brasher scored when Wobbe reached on an error, then McCord doubled home both runners to make it 5-2. Later in the inning, McCord stole third and scored on a hit by Caffrey.

The Miners tacked on two more runs after two were out in the eighth, as Davenport doubled and scored on a hit by Caffrey, then an error on the play allowed him to reach second and was able to score on Lee Voth-Gaeddert (Hesston, Kan./Hesston HS)'s single.

Maryville made a late rally after Dunn left the game following the seventh inning, scoring twice in the eighth and three in the ninth to get to within a run. The Saints got to within one when Caleb Miller delivered a two-run single with two outs, but Dunsford got Mitch Seward to fly out to end the contest.

Dunn allowed six hits and struck out three over the seven innings he worked. He was aided by an offense that rapped out 15 hits, with McCord and Caffrey getting three apiece.

Missouri S&T will host Missouri-St. Louis in a four-game series beginning next Saturday at the S&T Baseball Field; the first game Saturday will start at 1 p.m.