ROLLA, Mo. – After being held in check for seven innings by Rockhurst's Jack Eisenbarger, MissourI S&T's baseball team broke loose for a 10-run eighth inning against the Hawks' bullpen to rally for a 13-5 win to complete a sweep of the final Great Lakes Valley Conference series of the season.

The win assures the Miners of a top-four seed for the GLVC Tournament that begins Thursday in Ozark, Mo., where the Miners will be the home team for their first round contest.  The opponent and time of that game will be announced following the conclusion of conference play later this weekend.

In addition, the Miners improved to 30-15 overall and finished 22-11 in the GLVC, giving the Miners their fourth 30-win season in program history and also matches the most wins in a conference season with the 2013 team that also won 22 league games.

That became possible as the result of the Miners' first 10-run inning since March 16, 2016 at Pittsburg State, as S&T sent 16 batters to the plate as it took the lead for the first time in the contest.

Rockhurst scored runs in each of the first three innings – after which Eisenbarger set the Miners down in order in the bottom half of each of them – before S&T got on the scoreboard in the fifth.  Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) reached base on a bunt and came around to score on Doug Wood's (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) one-out triple.  Drew Aldana (El Paso, TX/JM Hanks) followed with a sacrifice fly to bring home Wood.

The Hawks (12-37, 6-27 GLVC) pushed their lead back to two with an unearned run in the sixth that scored on a two-out single by Tommy Kraus, but the Miners answered back in the bottom half of the inning on a hit by Reid, two stolen bases and a ground ball by Knickerbocker to score him.

Eisenbarger was replaced in the eighth by Garrett McNally and the Miners' rally started with an opposite field hit by Jason Volkmann (Liberty, MO/Liberty).  With one out, Volkmann would steal second and moved to third when the throw went into center field, then scored when Reid belted a triple over the head of centerfielder Noah Huston.

Moments later, Zach Bracken (Berthoud, CO/Berthoud) also tripled to center to put the Miners into the lead, then Knickerbocker slashed a single the opposite field to score Bracken and make it 6-4.

The rally continued as Burk reached on an infield hit and with the runners at second and third, Wood laid down a perfect bunt to score Knickerbocker.  Wood also reached on the play – as Burk also tried to score but was thrown out at the plate – then a walk to Aldana and a hit by Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) scored Wood.  Volkmann, batting for the second time in the inning, drew a walk to load the bases, which was then followed by a walk, a hit batter and another walk to force in runs and a two-run single by Knickerbocker to finish the scoring.

S&T outhit Rockhurst 14-9 – Knickerbocker had three of the hits and drove in four – while Stuart Martin (Ajax, ON/Ajax) picked up the win with five innings of solid relief, as he allowed just the unearned run in the sixth and struck out a career-high nine.  The Miners also stole seven bases in the game and 20 in the weekend series, as they surpassed the 100-mark in stolen bases in a season for the first time in program history.