KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Needing a win to avoid being swept in the weekend series at Truman State, Missouri S&T's Keith Coulson (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) fired a gem on the hill to lift the Miners to a 6-2 win in the second game of Monday's Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader. 

The Bulldogs, who won a pair of one-run games to start the series, took Monday's opener 6-0.

Coulson carried a shutout into the eighth inning and was backed by an early outburst by the Miner offense as it broke loose for five runs in the third inning.

That inning started with a walk to Tyler Schutt (Katy, Texas/Cinco Ranch), who proceeded to steal second and went to third on Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, Mo./Lutheran-St. Charles)'s hit.  Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) followed with a ground out to score Schutt to give S&T the lead, then following a hit by Tyler Johnson (Union, Mo./Union), Trevor Karbowski (Standish, Mich./Sterling Central) hit into a fielder's choice; an error on the throw to try to complete an inning-ending double play was wild, allowing Swindle to cross the plate.

Lance Portwood (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Santa Fe) then singled to bring home Karbowski and Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) followed by hitting his fifth home run of the season to close the Miner scoring in the inning.

With that five-run lead in hand, Coulson pitched around hits in the third and fourth innings, then set the Bulldogs down in order in the fifth.  In the sixth, the Bulldogs got a leadoff single from Paul Trenhaile, but he was thrown out stealing as Coulson struck out Dave Gambino.

S&T added a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Swindle before Truman broke the shutout in the bottom of the eighth on a leadoff triple by T.J. Wood and a one-out RBI single by Jarod Hahn.

The Miners outhit the Bulldogs 11-9 in the second contest, thanks to three hits by Reed Brown (Rogers, Ark./Heritage) and two by Portwood.

In his 7 1/3 innings of work, Coulson scattered eight hits and struck out six.  Dan Borek (Greenville, Wis./Hortonville) got the final five outs to preserve the win.

The Bulldogs scored twice in the opening inning of game one, first on an RBI ground out and then on a bases loaded walk to Michael Venturella, before adding a run in the second on an RBI single by Trenhaile.

S&T had a threat in the fourth when Karbowski drew a walk to start the inning and Portwood followed with an infield hit, but after they were moved ahead with a ground ball, were stranded on second and third to end the inning.

After getting out of that inning, Truman added to its advantage in the bottom of the fourth when Hahn doubled home Wood and was brought home on Gambino's run-scoring double.  An error later in the inning allowed a third Truman run to score.

Portwood and Bodenstab had two hits apiece for the Miners in the first game, as they were outhit 8-5 by the Bulldogs (26-14, 17-11 GLVC).  Starting pitcher Micah Dohlen (Kent, Wash./Kent Lake) took the loss for S&T.

The Miners (21-18, 16-12 GLVC) will be back in action Tuesday when they host College of the Ozarks in a 1 p.m. doubleheader at the S&T Baseball Field.