ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team used a big fifth inning to break a tie and went on to complete a sweep of its Great Lakes Valley Conference series with Missouri-St. Louis Saturday afternoon, as it downed the Tritons 7-1 at the S&T Ballpark.
The Miners scored four times in the fifth to break a 1-1 tie and went on to finish the three-game sweep that improved them to 22-13 overall and 15-9 in the GLVC.
S&T got on the board first in the opening inning when
Jason Volkmann (Liberty, MO/Liberty) was hit by a pitch to begin the inning, then after stealing second, came home to score on a hit by
Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo). The Tritons (7-28, 6-18 GLVC) tied the contest in the second on an RBI ground out by Andrew Hayden that scored Jackson Dvorak.
The Miners had runners in scoring position in three of the first four innings after scoring their first run, but was unable to get any additional runners across the plate during that time. That changed in the fifth, when Volkmann opened the inning with a triple into the right field corner and crossed the plate on a hit by Hayes.
Hayes stole second and
Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) drew a one-out walk, then
Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) hit a ball up the middle that went off the glove of second baseman Mitchel Becher to score Hayes. Lira ended up at third on the play and after Knickerbocker stole second,
Kaleb Reid (Smithville, MO/Smithville) followed with a single to center to score two more.
S&T tacked on runs in the sixth on an RBI single by Lira and another in the eighth, as Hayes had his third run-scoring hit of the day with a double that brought home
Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North).
Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman) picked up his fourth win of the season on the mound, scattering six hits and striking out three over seven innings.
Bryan Nolan (Ballwin, MO/St. Louis University HS) and
Stuart Martin (Ajax, ON/Ajax) each threw a scoreless inning in back of Erger.
The Miners outhit UMSL 11-7 on the afternoon, with Volkmann getting two hits to go along with the three from Hayes.
The Miners will be idle until Friday when they open a three-game series against McKendree in Lebanon, Ill.
