KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri S&T struggled to get things going offensively Sunday and dropped both ends of its doubleheader to Rockhurst, but despite the two losses – by scores of 1-0 in eight innings and 12-6 – the Miners still landed a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.

The Miners, 25-24 overall and 19-17 in the GLVC, made the field when Missouri-St. Louis also dropped both games at Quincy Sunday, putting S&T into the field for the fourth time in five years.   The tournament begins Thursday in Westfield, Ind.  

S&T will open play in the tournament as the eighth seed and will take on top-seeded Quincy in its opening contest at 2:30 p.m.  The Miners' second game in the tournament will be against either No. 4 seed Truman State or No. 5 and defending tournament champion Southern Indiana, either at 6 p.m. Thursday in an elimination game or at 11 a.m. Friday in a winner's bracket contest. (All times are Eastern.)  

On Sunday, S&T was held to seven hits over the first 14 innings of play before a five-run outburst in the bottom of the seventh of game two.

After being held scoreless in the first game of the twinbill on four hits, the Miners broke the ice with a two-out rally in the second, as Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, Mo./Lutheran-St. Charles) doubled to the fence in left center and scored on Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman)'s hit off the first baseman's glove.

However, those two hits and the first inning single by Trevor Karbowski (Standish, Mich./Sterling Central) would be the only Miner hits of game two until the seventh inning.  In the meantime, the Hawks put up four straight multiple-run innings after S&T took the initial lead to take control of the contest.

The Hawks started their scoring with three in the bottom of the second, as Brandon Weber's two-run triple gave Rockhurst the lead; Weber would score later in the inning on Patrick Burns' squeeze bunt.

Rockhurst tacked on three more in the third, two scoring on an RBI single by Blake Petersen – the second run scored on an error – and the third on an RBI groundout.

The Hawks proceeded to add two runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth against the S&T bullpen to extend its lead to 12-1.

S&T put five on the board in the seventh, starting with a leadoff double by John Ceriotti (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University HS) and ending with Tylor McNiel (Plato, Mo./Plato)'s three-run homer.  Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman), who had two of S&T's eight hits, also had an RBI in the inning.

The Miners, who were outhit in all four games of the weekend series, gave up 15 in the second contest.

The Hawks won a pitcher's duel in game one between S&T's Keith Coulson (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) and Rockhurst's Michael Lydon-Lorson.  S&T was held without a baserunner until the fourth inning – which was then erased on a double play – then got its leadoff man on in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings but came away empty.

Coulson matched zeroes with Lydon-Lorson for the first seven innings, not allowing a hit himself until Seth Soto singled with two outs in the fourth.  Coulson pitched out of trouble in the fifth when the Hawks had a runner at second with one out and again in the seventh, getting a strikeout and a ground ball after Rockhurst got the winning run to second with one out.

The Miners got a leadoff double from Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) in the eighth, but after being moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, a pair of ground outs ended the scoring chance.  Rockhurst then won it in the bottom of the eighth when Soto singled with the bases loaded.

Johnson had two hits for the Miners as Rockhurst (21-29, 12-22 GLVC) had a 6-4 advantage in that department.