By: John Kean, Sports Information Director
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri S&T answered back after Bellarmine had tied the opening round contest in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, scoring four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to take a 6-2 win for its 10th consecutive victory.
The second-seeded Miners, 29-15 on the season and ranked fourth in the NCAA Midwest regional rankings, will face third seed Northern Kentucky in the second round at 11 a.m. Friday at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The Norse, 32-18 and one spot ahead of S&T in the regional rankings, beat Drury 7-3 in the first game Thursday.
S&T saw a 2-0 lead it took in the bottom of the first evaporate in the top of the seventh, but got a two-run single off the bat of Josh Caffrey (Burlington, Iowa/Burlington HS) and scored two unearned runs later in the inning to take the insurmountable lead for junior pitcher Zack Gronek (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell), who fired a four-hit complete game for his ninth win of the season.
After Gronek retired the Knights (26-25) in order in the opening inning, the Miners loaded the bases in the bottom half before making an out. Will McCord (Kingman, Ariz./Kingman HS) was hit by Jason Sterrett's first pitch of the contest, then Drew Davenport (McHenry, Ill./McHenry West) and Caffrey reached base on bunt singles.
With one out, Lee Voth-Gaeddert (Hesston, Kan./Hesston HS) hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to put S&T in front, then Zach Carter (Perkins, Okla./Perkins-Tryon) followed with a soft liner that third baseman Zachary Blanchard dove for but couldn't secure, allowing Davenport to score.
Gronek cruised through the first six innings, retiring the first 13 hitters before Kalvin Scheier blooped a single down the line in left for the first Knight hit. Bellarmine also got a hit from David Weinstein in the sixth, but didn't break through against Gronek until the seventh.
Braxton Graven was hit by a pitch to open the inning, then Samuel Burke drew a walk. With one out and the runners in motion, Kyle Roden hit a ball through the hole past second for the first Bellarmine run, then Blanchard executed a successful suicide squeeze bunt that tied the score.
But in the bottom of the seventh, Nick Burke (Good Hope, Ill./West Prairie HS) led off with a hit and the Miners got two more baserunners when McCord and Davenport were hit by pitches. Caffrey followed by hammering a pitch over the head of leftfielder Michael Morrissette to score two and put the Miners back in front.
After Voth-Gaeddert singled with two outs to load the bases, Carter hit a ball that went through the legs of second baseman Justin Eberenz to allow two more runs to cross the plate and give Gronek a four-run cushion for the final two innings.
The Knights got two runners on base with two outs in the eighth, but Gronek retired Burke on a foul pop to end the inning and set Bellarmine down in order in the ninth to record his fifth complete game of the season. He finished with seven strikeouts and walked just one on the afternoon.
S&T outhit Bellarmine 8-4, with Caffrey and Voth-Gaeddert getting two hits apiece.
