Box Score WESTFIELD, Ind. – Two rain delays did little to deter Missouri S&T Thursday afternoon – and evening – as it advanced in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament by downing Illinois Springfield 11-4 in its opening round contest.

The win sends the Miners, who won their seventh straight game to improve to 35-15 on the year, to a 3 p.m. (Eastern time) contest Friday against Rockhurst.  The Hawks, the third seed from the GLVC West, bumped off Indianapolis 11-8 in its opening round game earlier in the day.

The Miners were able to take advantage of some sloppy play by the Prairie Stars in the opening inning to put four runs on the scoreboard.

Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) was hit by Jose Marin's first pitch, then following an opposite field single by Justus Nelson (Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) and a sacrifice bunt, Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) drew a walk to load the bases.   The Miners scored their first run when Trevor Karbowski (Standish, Mich./Sterling Central) hit a ground ball to short, but the throw to second went into right field and allowed Nelson to follow Bodenstab across the plate.

Lance Portwood (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Santa Fe)'s ground out scored the third run of the inning, then Collin Zurweller (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt East) reached on another throwing error by UIS shortstop Kyle Hunsinger to score Karbowski.

That became a theme off the game, as UIS committed six errors in the contest and allowed six additional baserunners without hits, as the Miners scored their 11 runs on just seven hits.

After the Prairie Stars (28-22) scored two in the second, S&T answered back when Ulrich belted a three-run homer with two outs to give S&T a 7-2 advantage after two innings.

Before the Miners came to bat in the fourth, a heavy rainstorm rolled into the complex to bring about the second rain delay of the contest.  Following a stoppage that lasted close to two hours, S&T tacked on two more runs in the fourth on an RBI ground out by Nelson and a run-scoring single by Eli Miller (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville).

Adam Richter (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) drove in a run in the fifth and Miller knocked in a run three innings later to wrap up the Miner scoring.

Keith Coulson (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central), who took over on the mound for starter Aaron Bedsworth (New Bloomfield, Mo./New Bloomfield) in the fifth following the rain delay, pitched four scoreless innings and allowed just one hit to pick up the win.  Coulson improved to 10-2 on the season and became just the second pitcher in Miner history to win 10 games in a season.

Miller, Ulrich and Richter all had two hits apiece for S&T.