ROLLA, Mo. – When the door opened for Missouri S&T to grab the outright championship in the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division Sunday afternoon, the Miners ran right through it and took the prize.

The opportunity became possible after Truman State knocked off Rockhurst earlier on Sunday in the final game of that series, giving S&T the chance to claim the outright title.  The Miners did just that, sweeping Maryville by identical 5-2 scores at the S&T Ballpark to give them their first division championship since 2012.

Box Scores: Game 1 / Game 2

Missouri S&T – wihich broke a pair of win records on Sunday as it improved to 34-15 on the year -- will face Illinois Springfield as the division's top seed Thursday at 3 p.m. (Eastern time) at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind., in the opening round of the GLVC Tournament.  The Miners won two of three from the Prairie Stars (28-21) in a non-conference series in March in Springfield, Ill.

In addition to breaking its single season win mark with the two victories Sunday, S&T also topped its record for home wins in a season as it completed its home schedule with a 22-4 mark.  The previous record for home wins was 21, set in 2012.

Game one on Sunday, however, started in a similar manner as the two games on Saturday did as S&T fell behind early in the contest.  Maryville – who had been eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday – scored twice in the first against Miner starter Keith Coulson (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central), but S&T answered right back in the bottom of the inning.

Following a leadoff single by Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) and a fielder's choice, Eli Miller (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) tripled to the fence in left to score Tyler Johnson (Union, Mo./Union).  Miller would score the tying run moments later on Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney)'s sacrifice fly.

Coulson proceeded to keep the Saints off the scoreboard over the next four innings, getting a big defensive play along the way as Bodenstab threw out Tyler Omlid at third just before Louis Niemerg could cross the plate to end the top of the fifth and keep the game tied.  In the bottom of the inning, Bodenstab used his bat to put S&T in front.

Adam Richter (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) led the inning off by lining a double down the right field line, then came around to score when Bodenstab  singled through the hole between third and short.

The Miners were unable to add any more runs in the fifth, but did plate two more in the sixth on an RBI single by Trevor Karbowski (Standish, Mich./Sterling Central) and another RBI hit by Bodenstab, who drove in seven runs in the four-game series.

Coulson pitched into the seventh, then turned the game over to Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, Ill./Central Catholic) after allowing a two-out triple to Omlid; Marcheschi retired pinch-hitter Mitch Carriger on a ground ball to first to end it.

Bodenstab had three hits and Richter had two as the Miners outhit the Saints 9-5.  Coulson improved to 9-2 as he allowed just five hits and struck out four.

In game two, the Miners jumped out to a 3-0 in the first inning against Maryville starter Robbie Gordon.  Justus Nelson (Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) drew a one-out walk before the Miners strung together four consecutive singles, the last three of which scored runs.  Ulrich singled in the first run, followed by run scoring singles off the bats of Lance Portwood (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Santa Fe) and Collin Zurweller (St. Peters, Mo./Fort Zumwalt East).

The first ended with a double play after the Zurweller hit, then the Miners missed good scoring chances in each of the next three innings when they had a runner at third.  In the meantime, the Saints scored single runs in the third and fourth to cut the Miner lead to 3-2.

S&T extended its advantage in the fifth against the Maryville bullpen when Miller led off with a bunt single and later scored on Portwood's ground ball, then scored again in the sixth when Bodenstab brought home Karbowski with a one-out single.

Trent Green (Perryville, Mo./Perryville) threw the first six innings for the Miners and a trio of Miner relievers navigated through the final nine outs to finish the run to the division title.

The Saints got two runners on base in each of those innings, but the Miners got out of the seventh when Portwood got to a ball hit toward the hole with two outs and beat Carriger to the bag to end that threat.

Maryville got its first two on the eighth, but Ryan Bearden (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) set down the next three to halt that chance, before Ethan Krenning (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) pitched around a pair of two-out walks by striking out Daniel Covert to end the game.

Green gave up just three hits in his seven innings of work, while the trio of relievers – Dalton Erger (Imperial, Mo./Seckman), Bearden and Krenning – recorded three strikeouts and allowed only two hits in the final three frames.

The Miners outhit the Saints (21-27, 12-16 GLVC) 11-5, as four Miners had two hits apiece.

Missouri S&T finished at 19-9 in GLVC play, one game ahead of Quincy and Rockhurst in the GLVC West standings.