ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T kept hold of its part of first place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division by sweeping a doubleheader Saturday from Truman State at the S&T Ballpark, winning 7-0 behind Dan Borek (Greenville, Wis./Hortonville)'s three-hit shutout in the opener and holding on for a 4-3 win in the nightcap.

After a first inning in which he escaped from thanks to a double play and a runner thrown out at the plate, Borek settled in and didn't allow another hit to the Bulldogs until the seventh inning.  In the meantime, the Miners put three runs on the board in the third and four more in the fifth to give him all the runs he needed.

The Miners' third inning uprising started when Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) reached on an infield single.  After he stole second, Eli Miller (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) singled through the hole into right to bring home the first run of the contest.

Miller took second on the throw and scored moments later when Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) reached on a throwing error by the shortstop.  Tyler Johnson (Union, Mo./Union) followed with a hit to drive home Ulrich to give the Miners a 3-0 lead.

In the fifth, S&T opened the inning with back-to-back hits from Justus Nelson (Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) and Miller, then Johnson reached on an infield hit with one out to load the bases.  Collin Zurweller (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt East) then grounded a ball to short, but the throw to second sailed into right field, allowing two runs to score on the play.

Lance Portwood (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Santa Fe) finished the scoring for the Miners by lining a single into center to drive in the final two runs of the inning.

The Bulldogs had only two runners reach base between the second and seventh innings; one was erased on a double play in the fourth and the other was stranded in the sixth.  Borek allowed a hit in the seventh and a two-out triple in the eighth before retiring the final four hitters in order, which included a leaping catch by shortstop Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, Texas/Cushing) to end the eighth and preserve the shutout.

Borek improved to 6-3 with the win as the Miners outhit Truman 10-3.

In the second game, Truman took a 2-0 lead against S&T starter Aaron Bedsworth (New Bloomfield, Mo./New Bloomfield) in the first on RBI singles by Jason Priest and Brendan Trimble, but the Miners got one of the runs back in the bottom half of the inning when Portwood's RBI ground ball scored Bodenstab.

As was the case in game one, the Miners then proceeded to take the lead in the third by scoring three times.

The inning began when Adam Richter (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) tripled on a ball down the line in left that went past a diving Josh Abegg; Richter would score moments later on a hit by Bodenstab.  Following a sacrifice bunt, Miller doubled down the line in left to bring home Bodenstab with the go-ahead run.

Miller would end up at third when his ball was kicked by the left fielder, which would allow him to score on a sacrifice fly by Portwood.

Bedsworth pitched a pair of two-out baserunners in the fourth – getting a strikeout to get out of the inning – then retired the Bulldogs in order in the fifth and sixth before running into some trouble in the seventh.

The Miner lefthander struck out T.J. Wood to begin the inning, but the strike three pitch got away from Nelson and Wood was able to reach base.  One out later, Nick Agliolo bunted his way on to put runners at the corners, then Dave Gambino singled to center to cut the lead to 4-3.

Ethan Krenning (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) was summoned from the bullpen and got Priest to pop out on a sacrifice bunt attempt for the second out, then fanned Trimble on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.

Bedsworth allowed nine hits and struck out four as he improved his mark to 7-2 on the season; the save for Krenning was his fourth. 

S&T had six hits in the second game, two apiece by Bodenstab, Miller and Richter.

With Saturday's sweep, the Miners remained in a tie for first in the GLVC West with Quincy, who swept a twibill Saturday at Drury, with a 9-5 mark in the GLVC.  S&T, now 23-11 overall, also moved 12 games above the .500 mark for the first time this season and are at least a dozen games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2012 season.

The Miners and Bulldogs (14-21, 6-8 GLVC) will finish their weekend series with a noon doubleheader on Sunday.