ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T got a walk-off win in extra innings to begin this weekend's crucial four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series with Missouri-St. Louis, but the Tritons gained a split of Saturday's twinbill by getting an extra inning win of their own in the nightcap.
The Miners (19-23, 9-13 GLVC) took game one 5-4 on
Conner Forsythe (Farmington, MO/Farmington)'s two-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11
th inning, but in the second game, UMSL (19-24, 10-12 GLVC) scored twice in the top of the eighth to win 4-2.
As a result, the Miners stay one game in back of the Tritons in the GLVC West Division race, but S&T now sits just one game in back of William Jewell for fourth place in the division with six games remaining on the conference schedule. S&T and UMSL – who moved into a tie with William Jewell with the game two win – will play two more times on Sunday at the S&T Ballpark starting at noon.
The Miners fell behind in the second inning of the opener, but tied the score in the fifth when
Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) drew a one-out walk, stole second and scored on
Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles)'s hit down the line in left. However, UMSL regained the lead in the sixth on a two-run double by Derrick Freeman and carried that advantage into the seventh.
S&T, which had been held to three hits over the first six innings, got a leadoff triple from
Justus Nelson (Plymouth, MN/Robbinsdale Armstrong) and he scored on a hit that followed by
Jack DeGarmo (Liberty, MO/Liberty North). Later in the inning, DeGarmo came across with the tying run on
Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah)'s sacrifice fly.
The Miner bullpen held the fort until the 11
th, when the Tritons took the lead on a two-out double by Tom DeCero, but a second runner trying to score on the play was thrown out at the plate on DeGarmo's relay throw from
Jason Volkmann (Liberty, MO/Liberty) in left -- a play that ended the inning and turned into a huge play a short time later.
In the bottom of the 11
th, Burk was hit by a pitch to start the inning and ended up at third following a sacrifice bunt and a ground out. With a 1-2 count on him, Forsythe blasted a Alex Oltman delivery over the fence in left to win it for the Miners and draw them into a tie for the time being in the standings with UMSL.
The Tritons outhit S&T 15-10 in game one; Forsythe had three hits and Nelson – one of six S&T seniors honored prior to Saturday's twinbill – had two hits.
Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) picked up the win following his 2 2/3-inning relief stint.
UMSL took the lead in game two with a pair of runs in the third inning off S&T starter
Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville) – one of which was unearned – but the Miners knotted the score with single runs in the fifth and sixth frames.
The Miners got their first two runners on base in the fifth on hits by Nelson and DeGarmo, then after a sacrifice bunt by Volkmann, Burk hit a sacrifice fly to get S&T on the board. An inning later, Gruse bunted his way on to start the inning and came into score two batters later on a hit by
Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn).
But in the eighth, the Tritons regained the lead when Freeman hit a two-run double to the fence in center and UMSL starter Matt Graser pitched around a two-out hit to close out the contest.
Forsythe had two hits for S&T in game two as they were outhit 8-7. Borek, who pitched into the eighth, took the loss for S&T.
