ST. LOUIS, Mo. – After spotting Missouri-St. Louis two runs in the first inning, Missouri S&T scored three times to take the lead in the third and got another strong pitching performance from
Cade Meier (Dakota, IL/Dakota) as it won the first game of a four-game weekend series with a 6-3 victory Friday afternoon.
UMSL took the early lead when Carson Holin doubled to open the game and scored on a hit by Leighton Keller, who would later score on a wild pitch to give the Tritons (1-3) their second run of the inning. But after that early outburst, Meier took charge on the hill as he allowed only one run on four hits and struck out eight over the rest of the contest.
S&T (2-3) went down in order in the first and stranded a runner in the second, but got to Triton starter Nick Torres in the third to grab the lead.
Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) led off the inning by drawing a walk and
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) followed with a hit to precede a double by
Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) that scored Hughes. Sill ended up on third and scored moments later on
Michael Ward's (Hazelwood, MO/Hazelwood West) sacrifice fly, which also sent Hayes to third and he would then score the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of
Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North).
Meier was able to induce a double play ball to get out of the fourth and pitched around a leadoff hit in the sixth to keep the Miners in the lead, before S&T added to its advantage in the seventh.
Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) greeted Triton reliever Christian Thrasher with a leadoff single, then stole second and came around to score on an opposite field single by Sill. With two outs, Ward drove in his second run of the afternoon with a double to bring in Voss.
UMSL got a run back with an unearned tally in the seventh, but the Miners regained their three-run lead when Sill drew a two-out walk and later scored on a hit by Hayes.
Meier set down the final eight Tritons he faced to complete his 101-pitch outing in which he did not walk a batter and got 12 ground ball outs.
Hayes and Sill had two hits apiece for S&T, who outhit UMSL 8-6 in the contest.
The Miners and Tritons will face off in a doubleheader Saturday afternoon at noon before completing the weekend set with a single game on Sunday.
