EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The long wait to finally get to play this weekend was worth it for Missouri S&T's baseball team Sunday night, as they scored nine runs over the first three innings and went on to post a 10-7 win over Grand Valley State at the Dunn Hospitality Classic at Southern Indiana.
The Miners, playing for the first time since Feb. 14, evened their record at 2-2 as they used a six-run outburst in the second inning and a three-run surge in the third to grab a big advantage early in the contest.
After Grand Valley State (0-3) got an unearned run off S&T starter
Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman) in the opening inning, the Miners unloaded on the Lakers in the second.
The inning started when
Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) hit the first pitch of the inning into the gap in right center for a double. Connor Forsythe was hit by Tate Brawley's next pitch, then a walk to
Zach Wiegand (Coppell, TX/Parish Episcopal) loaded the bases.
Jack DeGarmo (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) singled in a run to tie the score before
Kaleb Reid (Smithville, MO/Smithville) was hit by a pitch with one out to force in the go-ahead run.
Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) followed with a two-run single – Reid was tagged out on the play when he was caught between second and third – but
Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) followed by blasting his first home run of the season to make it 6-1.
The Lakers scored four times in the third to cut the lead to 6-5, the last three runs scoring as the result of an error with two outs in the inning. The Miners got those three runs right back in the bottom half of the frame, as Gruse again opened the inning with a double.
Forsythe reached on an error and Wiegand drew a walk to load the bases with nobody out. A one-out walk to
Justus Nelson (Plymouth, MN/Robbinsdale Armstrong) forced in a run, then a wild pitch allowed Forsythe to cross the plate. Later in the inning, another wild pitch scored Wiegand to extend S&T's lead to 9-5.
After all the early scoring,
Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) took over on the mound for the Miners in the fourth and settled matters down, keeping the Lakers off the scoreboard over the next five innings and striking out six along the way. The Miners did add an unearned run in the eighth as a throwing error on
Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn)'s ground ball allowed Swindle to score.
Marcheschi, who got the win in relief, remained in the game until Grand Valley State got a run off him in the ninth and turned it over to Forsythe. After the Lakers scored once more to cut the margin to three, Forsythe fanned pinch-hitter >>>> Anspaugh to end the game.
Knickerbocker, Lira and Gruse all had two hits apiece for S&T, who outhit the Lakers 8-7 in the contest.
The Miners will play twice on Monday, facing Hillsdale at 11 a.m. and Southern Indiana at 5 p.m. Southern Indiana swept a doubleheader from the Chargers Sunday by identical 7-6 scores.
