SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Another big inning early in the contest led 14^th-ranked Illinois Springfield to an 18-8 win over Missouri S&T's baseball team Saturday afternoon as the teams closed out their Great Lakes Valley Conference series.

The Prairie Stars (18-2, 14-2 GLVC) scored a run in the first on a home run by Anthony DeConcilis, then busted the game open with a nine-run third inning as they sent 14 hitters to the plate.  After a walk started the inning, UIS rattled off six straight hits that led to its first six runs of the frame.

After the Miners (8-12, 4-8 GLVC) got their first run on an RBI double by Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) in the fourth, the Prairie Stars added four more runs in the bottom half of the inning and also scored four times in the sixth.

S&T scored three times in the fifth, scoring the first on an Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James) RBI single that scored Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain), then Branson scored himself when Michael Ward (Hazelwood, MO/Hazelwood West) followed with a two-run homer.

The Miners also scored two in the sixth on an RBI double by Landon Bell (Seymour, MO/Seymour) and a ground ball by Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) that brought home a run, and got two in the seventh on back-to-back home runs by Keegan Baxmeyer (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) and Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North).

UIS outhit the Miners 22-12 in the series finale; Berkhoff had three hits for the Miners, while Ward, Bell and Voss all had two apiece.  Dylan Dunbar (West Plains, MO/West Plains), the first of four pitchers used by S&T Saturday, took the loss on the hill.

The Miners will return home for a four-game series against Drury that will begin with a single game Friday at the S&T Ballpark.