LEBANON, Ill. – Missouri S&T's baseball team reached one high water mark for the season and tied another Sunday afternoon as it completed a sweep of its three-game series against McKendree with a 6-2 victory.
The win moved S&T to 12 games over the .500 mark for the first time this season at 25-13 overall and was its sixth straight victory, matching their longest winning streak of the year. The Miners also improved to 18-9 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference as they moved into a tie with Illinois Springfield for third place in the standings.
The Miners got on the board in the second when
Keegan Baxmeyer (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) doubled with two outs and came home to score on
Kaleb Reid's (Smithville, MO/Smithville) hit, but the Bearcats (9-31, 6-21 GLVC) knotted the score an inning later on Bryce Emery's bunt single that scored Joseph Costanzo
S&T got the lead back in the fifth when
Braden Mahurin (Dixon, MO/Dixon) hit a home run that hugged the line in left, then added to its advantage when
Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) reached on an error and later scored on an opposite field single by
Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah), followed moments later by a
Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) two-out single to drive in
Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo).
Baxmeyer homered to the opposite field to lead off the sixth to extend the Miner lead to 5-1 and after McKendree scored a run while the Miners turned a double play in the bottom of the eighth, S&T pushed its final run across in the eighth when Gruse drove in his second run of the game with an RBI single that brought home Reid.
Will Boettcher (Metamora, IL/Metamora), who had pitched out of the bullpen all season, got his first start on the mound for S&T on Sunday and threw the first four innings, allowing just one run and five hits in that span. The Miner bullpen took over from there, using three relievers to cover the final five innings. The last of the three relievers,
Joe Wolf (Freeburg, IL/Freeburg), was credited with the win.
The Miners outhit McKendree 11-9 with Burk, Gruse, Baxmeyer and Reid all getting two hits apiece.
Missouri S&T is scheduled to return to action Tuesday with a non-conference game against Southwest Baptist in Bolivar, Mo. , at 2 p.m.
