JOPLIN, Mo. – Prior to Monday, Missouri S&T's baseball team had won only one game in which it had trailed in at any point – and entered the sixth inning of its Great Lakes Valley Conference game against William Jewell down by three.
But a six-run outburst in the sixth inning put the Miners into the lead as S&T took a 9-4 decision and won two of the three contests in the first conference series of the season. The Miners improved to 8-5 overall on the year with the win in the rubber game of the series.
William Jewell (6-8-1, 1-2 GLVC) scored twice in the opening inning off starter
Matthew Lamb (Doniphan, NE/Grand Island), then S&T cut that lead in half in the second when
Kaleb Reid (Smithville, MO/Smithville) doubled with two outs to score
Brady Wildschuetz (Foristell, MO/Francis Howell). However, the Cardinals got that run back in the bottom half of the inning on Chase Redick's RBI single that scored Tyler Murphy.
The Cardinals added to their advantage in the fifth on Trent Bollman's infield single that allowed Murphy to score again, but the Miners unloaded on two William Jewell pitchers to take the lead in the sixth.
Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) singled to begin the frame, followed by hits by
Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) and
Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) to load the bases. Wildschuetz singled through the hole to score Gruse and Lira to cut the lead to one and knock WJC starter Kylan Easley out of the game.
Following a passed ball that moved the runners up,
Conner Forsythe (Farmington, MO/Farmington) greeted reliever Garrison Fields with a double that scored Knickerbocker to tie the contest. That was followed by a ground out off the bat of
Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) that allowed Wildschuetz to score the go-ahead run.
S&T wasn't finished in the sixth, as
Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) drew a two-out walk, stole second and followed Forsythe across the plate on
Jason Volkmann's (Liberty, MO/Liberty) two-run single to cap the Miners' six-run inning.
Knickerbocker drove in another run in the seventh with a sacrifice fly after Lira led the inning off with a triple to add to the S&T advantage. In the ninth, the Miners tacked on another run when Gruse led off with a double and scored on a two-out double by Wildscheutz.
Gruse had three hits for the Miners, who outhit the Cardinals 12-10 and had nine of their 12 hits over the final four innings. Lira and Wildschuetz also had two hits apiece for S&T as reliever
Will Boettcher (Metamora, IL/Metamora), the first of four relievers employed by the Miners Monday, picked up the win.
Missouri S&T will be back in action on Tuesday when it opens its home schedule against Southwest Baptist at 11 a.m. at the S&T Ballpark. Tuesday's game will begin a nine-game homestand for the Miners, which will include conference contests against Truman State, Maryville and Lewis over the next two weeks.
