ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team assured itself of at least a split of the weekend series with Drury by knocking off the Panthers Sunday 8-6 in the first game of a Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader, before the Panthers got a split for the day with a 17-3 win in game two.

The Miners (10-13, 6-9 GLVC) jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning of game one and never trailed, even as the Panthers (9-13, 9-10 GLVC) made a rally effort in the middle innings.

In the first, Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) drew a walk to open the game, then Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) was hit by a pitch and Michael Ward (Hazelwood, MO/Hazelwood West) walked to load the bases.  Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) followed by doubling down the line in left to bring home two runs, then Keegan Baxmeyer (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) drove in two more with a double into left center before scoring himself later in the inning on a hit by Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James).

After Drury got on the scoreboard in the second, the Miners plated two more runs in the bottom half on a solo home run by Ward and another run-scoring double by Baxmeyer that scored Weiner from first.

Aaron Mann hit a two-run homer for the Panthers in the third, but the Miners scored again in their half when Branson led off with a double and came in on a two-out single by Hayes.

Drury cut the Miner lead to 8-6 in the fourth, but S&T starter Rian Markes (Columbia, MO/Father Tolton) got out of the inning by striking out Mann.  Markes pitched around a leadoff hit in the fifth and set the Panthers down in order in the sixth before turning it over to David Kephart (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest), who threw a perfect seventh inning to preserve the win.

The Miners outhit the Panthers 11-8 in the opener, with Wood and Branson getting three hits apiece and Baxmeyer driving in three.  Markes struck out five and walked one in his six innings to get the victory.

Game two was all Drury, as the Panthers scored four in the first and scored in every inning before the Miners plated three runs in the seventh.  Christian Montes de Oca (El Paso, TX/Franklin), Jaden Courtois (Festus, MO/Jefferson) and Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain) drove in the Miner runs in that inning.

Drury outhit S&T 19-9 in the nightcap.  Dylan Dunbar (West Plains, MO/West Plains), the first of five hurlers used by the Miners in game two, was tagged with the loss.

The Miners and Panthers will square off in a single game Monday at 2 p.m. at the S&T Ballpark to wrap up the four-game series.