KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team staged a ninth-inning uprising on a windy afternoon on Sunday, scoring five times in the ninth inning to defeat Rockhurst 16-11 and take two of the three games in the season-opening Great Lakes Valley Conference series.

S&T got a two-out RBI triple from freshman Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain) – who had entered the game as a pinch-runner in the eighth – as he laced a 3-2 pitch into the gap in right center to score AJ Marsh (High Ridge, MO/Seckman) with the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth to break an 11-all tie.

The Miners weren't finished following Berkhoff's go-ahead hit, as Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) doubled him home and later scored himself on an error following a double steal.  The Miners' fourth and fifth runs of the inning were forced home, first when Matt Miller (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) drew a walk with the bases loaded and Marsh was hit by pitch.

Joe Wolf (Freeburg, IL/Freeburg) entered the game in the eighth and kept the game tied, then retired three straight hitters in the ninth after giving up back-to-back hits to lock up the victory that improved the Miners to 7-8 overall and 2-1 in the GLVC.

The Miners opened the scoring in the wild contest in the first when Keegan Baxmeyer (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) doubled home Hayes, then scored himself moments later on a hit by Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North).  Rockhurst (8-7, 1-2 GLVC) cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning, but S&T extended its lead in the fifth with a three-run outburst.

Michael Ward (Hazelwood, MO/Hazelwood West) opened the inning with a double and went to third following a hit by Baxmeyer, who would go on to second after the throw back into the infield was off target.   Ward was cut down at the plate on a ground ball off the bat off Wood, but a wild pickoff attempt on Wood allowed Baxmeyer to score.  Later in the inning, Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) doubled to score Wood and Miller to give the Miners a 5-1 lead. 

S&T tacked on two more runs in the fourth on a RBI hit by Ward and an error that allowed Hayes to cross the plate before the Hawks cut into the lead with three in the bottom of the frame on a two-run homer by Tommy Kraus and a solo shot that followed by Garrett McNally.

Rockhurst got another run in the fifth when S&T was unable to turn what would have been an inning-ending double play, but the Miners added to their margin in the sixth when Hayes and Ward hit back-to-back solo home runs.

But in the bottom of the sixth, the Hawks broke out for six runs to take their first lead of the afternoon, taking the lead on a two-run single by McNally.

S&T came back in the eighth to knot the contest.  Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) was hit by a pitch with one out and pinch-runner Berkhoff moved on to third on an opposite field single by Hayes.  With two outs, Hayes stole second and came in to score behind Berkhoff on a hit by Baxmeyer.

Each team finished the game with 15 hits and combined for 13 hits for extra bases, with the Miners recording seven of them.  Hayes, who scored five times in the game, Ward and Baxmeyer all had three hits apiece, while the latter member of that trio drove in three.  S&T also drew eight walks from five Rockhurst pitchers, while its own hurlers struck out 10.

The five runs scored by Hayes tied the S&T single game record set by Jeff Ulrich 25 seasons ago as the Miners, who scored 23 runs in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader, tallied 39 runs in the final two games of the weekend series.  The two-game run total is the most ever by a Miner team in consecutive games, exceeding the 37 scored by S&T in a 2001 doubleheader at Pittsburg State.

The Miners return to the field next Saturday when they face Bellarmine in a GLVC doubleheader in Louisville, Ky.