JOPLIN, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team picked up its first victory of the 2021 season Monday afternoon as it avenged a loss to Missouri Western by beating the Griffons 9-6 at Missouri Southern State University.  S&T closed out its four-game weekend at Warren Turner Field by losing to the host Lions 14-1.

Missouri Western (1-2) scored six times in the top of the first when the teams met on Sunday, but the Miners turned the tables on the Griffons as they began Monday's contest with three runs in the top half of the opening inning.  With one out, Keegan Baxmeyer (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) doubled, stole third and came home on a hit by Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North).

S&T would proceed to load the bases when Tate Morrell (Lloydminster, AB/) was hit by a pitch and Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James) singled, then Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) delivered a two-out single to plate Wood and Morrell.

The Miners scored again in the third after Branson reached base on an error, stole second and later scored on Weiner's second run-scoring hit of the day.

Missouri Western got its first run during the course of a double play in the bottom of the third, but Weiner knocked in his fourth run of the day with a sacrifice fly in the fifth to make it 5-1.  The Miners tacked on another run in the sixth when Landon Bell (Seymour, MO/Seymour) singled home Wood, who was hit by a pitch, before the Griffons picked up a pair of runs in the bottom half of the inning.

The Miners got those runs back in the seventh on the strength of a two-run homer by Baxmeyer and Wood added a sacrifice fly in the ninth for S&T's ninth's run of the contest.

Nate Wodka (Allen, TX/Allen) pitched into the sixth in his first appearance for the Miners, scattering six hits and struck out five.  Matt Kaiser, the fifth reliever used by the Miners, retired the only hitter he faced to pick up a save.

Baxmeyer and Weiner had three hits apiece for S&T and combined to drive in six of the Miners' nine runs.  Branson, Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) and Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) had two hits each as the Miners racked up 16 hits to the Griffons' nine.

The final game of the weekend saw 19^th-ranked Missouri Southern (6-0) score 12 times in the second inning as it sent 16 batters to the plate.  Troy Gagan hit a three-run homer for the Lions in the inning and Dexter Swims had a pair of bases-clearing doubles along the way.

Southern scored two more runs in the fourth before the Miners averted the shutout when Matt Souza (Escondido, CA/Christian) doubled in Branson in the seventh.

S&T, who fell to 1-3, was held to four hits in the game as the Lions outhit the Miners 13-4.  Souza had the only extra base hit among the four with his seventh inning double.  Starting pitcher Dylan Dunbar (West Plains, MO/West Plains) took the loss for the Miners.

Missouri S&T returns to action on March 5 when it opens a four-game, non-conference series at Missouri-St. Louis.