ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T picked up its second win of the weekend series with Quincy in walk-off fashion Saturday afternoon, as
Landon Bell's (Seymour, MO/Seymour) RBI single in the bottom of the seventh gave the Miners a 5-4 win over the Hawks at the S&T Ballpark.
The second game of Saturday's doubleheader was suspended after five innings due to rain with Quincy holding a 14-5 lead. That contest will be completed Sunday at noon prior to the scheduled game between the teams that will wrap up the four-game set.
After the Hawks (8-6, 5-5 GLVC) had tied the game on Eric Tipton's infield single in the top of the seventh with two outs, the Miners (8-6, 4-2 GLVC) got a leadoff single from
Keegan Baxmeyer (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) to begin the bottom half of the frame and he moved on to third on a one-out hit by
Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James). The Hawks intentionally walked
Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) to load the bases, but Bell, who was at the plate as a pinch-hitter, chopped a 3-1 pitch over the head of third baseman Dayson Croes to score Baxmeyer with the winning run.
As was the case in Friday's game, the Miners jumped out to a lead in the first inning, starting with
Will Hayes' (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) leadoff home run down the line in left.
Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) followed with a hit and went to third on a double by Baxmeyer; Wood would score on an error at the end of the play.
S&T got its third run in the opening inning when Voss hit into a fielder's choice, then the Miners scored another run in the second on a sacrifice fly by Wood that plated
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing).
Quincy cut the Miner lead in half in the fifth when Lance Logsdon homered off S&T starter
Rian Markes (Columbia, MO/Father Tolton), then got to within a run in the sixth when a ground ball by Croes scored Cole Evans before tying the game in the seventh.
The Miners outhit the Hawks 12-8 in the contest, getting two hits apiece from Hayes, Wood, Baxmeyer and Branson.
David Kephart (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) got the win in relief for the Miners.
However, the Hawks got the jump on the Miners in the nightcap, scoring five in the first and two more in the second before S&T got on the scoreboard in the third, getting a run-scoring double from Hayes before he scored moments later on a ground ball off the bat of Wood.
Hayes also drove in the Miners' other three runs in the fourth on a bases-loaded double, but Quincy added six runs in the fifth, highlighted by Michael Nielsen's second home run of the game to take its 14-5 lead before the game was halted with approaching weather after the fifth inning concluded.