KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Missouri S&T drew closer to clinching a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference baseball tournament Friday by sweeping a doubleheader at Truman State, posting wins of 7-5 and 3-0 in the first of the two twinbills between the teams.

Coupled with Maryville's sweep over William Jewell on Friday, the Miners (23-24, 13-13 GLVC) are now only one victory away from clinching a berth to the tournament and do so on Saturday when they close their conference schedule with a noon doubleheader at Truman.

The Miners used a six-run outburst – highlighted by Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn)'s go-ahead grand slam – in the eighth inning to take control of the first game and got a three-hit shutout from Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman) in the nightcap to get the sweep on Friday.

Mason King's leadoff home run off Trent Green (Perryville, MO/Perryville) got the Bulldogs (12-34, 6-20 GLVC) on the scoreboard in the first inning of game one and the score remained that way until the sixth, when the Miners knotted the game against Truman starter Rian Markes.  Justus Nelson (Plymouth, MN/Robbinsdale Armstrong) led off the sixth with a hit and following a sacrifice bunt, scored on a hit by Zach Wiegand (Coppell, TX/Parish Episcopal) to tie the game.

Truman scored twice in the sixth with a pair of sacrifice flies to retake the lead in the sixth, but the Miners grabbed their first advantage of the contest with their six-run explosion in the eighth against two Bulldog relief pitchers.

As was the case in the sixth, the rally started with a hit by Nelson, who scored two batters later when Wiegand got an infield hit; a subsequent throwing error sent him to second.  Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) bunted his way on to bring about another pitching change, but a wild pitch by Matt Tometz scored Wiegand with the tying run.

With two outs, Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) drew a walk and Conner Forsythe (Farmington, MO/Farmington) was hit by a pitch to load the bases in front of Lira, who sent the second pitch he saw over the fence in left center for the grand slam that put S&T in front.

The Bulldogs cut into the Miner lead and had the tying runs in scoring position in the bottom of the eighth, but Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) got Brian Edell to ground out to end the threat.  Anthony Garza (Belleviille, IL/Belleville East) took over on the mound in the ninth and retired the Bulldogs in order – with two strikeouts along the way – to preserve the win for Marcheschi.

Missouri S&T outhit Truman 13-8 in the opener behind four hits from Nelson and three from Burk.

Lira gave the Miners the lead in the opening inning of game two, as his RBI single with two outs scored Burk.  In the fourth, S&T got a second run across the plate when Kaleb Reid (Smithville, MO/Smithville) scored when Nelson got into a rundown between first and second on a double steal.

Erger kept the Bulldogs in check after getting the lead and got an assist from his defense when Wiegand threw out Zach Spencer at the plate when he tried to score on a two-out single by Josh Abegg in the fifth to keep the shutout intact.

Lira, who had two of S&T's five hits in game two, drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth to extend the lead to 3-0 and Erger took care of the rest, as he struck out a career-high eight hitters in his first career complete game at the collegiate level.  Erger allowed just three hits – all singles -- in going the distance.