ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team, currently in a wild race to secure a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, split a doubleheader Saturday against the top-ranked team in the NCAA Division II Midwest Region, beating William Jewell 8-5 in the opener before dropping game two 10-1.

The Miners fell behind early in the first game, but used a three-run fourth inning to take the lead and never looked back.

William Jewell scored in each of the first two innings, getting the first run when the Miners turned a double play in the first and another in the second on an RBI single by Brian Rezin.  S&T cut the lead in half in the second as Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) and Brandon Farley (Vancouver, Wash./Heritage) had back-to-back singles before a passed ball and a sacrifice fly by Adam Richter (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) that scored Ulrich.

The Cardinals extended their lead to 3-1 in the fourth when Luke Lucchetti drove in Dane Erbst with a two-out single, but the Miners answered back in an inning that included a critical error by Jewell that led to S&T taking the lead.

Richter singled with one out and Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) drew a walk after the second out was recorded.  Tyler Johnson (Union, Mo./Union) then chopped a ball to third and reached the bag as the throw by third baseman Bryan Porting sailed over the head of the first baseman.  The wild throw allowed both Richter and Bodenstab to score to give the Miners their first lead of the game.

Following a walk to Trevor Karbowski (Standish, Mich./Sterling Central), Lance Portwood (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Santa Fe) singled into right to bring home Johnson with the third run of the inning.

The Miners would add a run in the seventh as Farley reached on a fielder's choice to score Reed Brown (Rogers, Ark./Heritage) and two more in the eighth, as Bodenstab doubled home Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, Mo./Lutheran-St. Charles) after his leadoff triple and then scored himself on a hit by Karbowski.

Aaron Bedsworth (New Bloomfield, Mo./New Bloomfield) threw the first seven innings to get the win, scattering 11 hits along the way but also getting some help from his defense, which turned four double plays in the contest.  He also got a big defensive play from Brown in the seventh, as he dove to his right to catch a ball heading down the line off the bat of Sam Morman and threw him out to end the inning and prevent a run from scoring.

Dan Borek (Greenville, Wis./Hortonville) threw the final two innings to pick up his second save of the season.

The Miners outhit Jewell 15-14 in the contest with Bodenstab leading the way with three hits, all of them for extra bases.  He had a double in the third and a triple in the sixth prior to his RBI double in the eighth.  Four other Miners had two hits apiece.

The Cardinals also grabbed the lead in the first inning of the nightcap when Lucchetti scored on an infield out by Morman, then added two in the second off S&T starter Micah Dohlen (Kent, Wash./Kent Lake) as Morman drove in two with an RBI single.

S&T scored in the bottom half of the third with Swindle led off with a double down the line in right and later scored on a hit by Karbowski.  However, the Cardinals knocked Dohlen out of the game during the course of a two-run fourth, then scored twice more in the fifth and sixth innings – Morman hit a two-run homer in the sixth to cap a five-RBI performance – and another in the seventh.

Karbowski had two of the Miners' four hits in the second game as they were outhit 12-4.

S&T (23-19, 17-13 GLVC) and William Jewell (31-12, 20-10 GLVC) will wrap up their weekend series with a noon doubleheader on Sunday.