ROLLA, Mo. – Offense was plentiful Friday afternoon at the S&T Ballpark and fortunately for Missouri S&T's baseball team, the Miners had more of it as they emerged victorious at the end of a 21-15 slugfest over Drury to open their four-game weekend series.
Game two of the scheduled doubleheader was postponed with weather and darkness concerns approaching and the teams will resume the series with a twinbill Sunday starting at noon.
The Miners scored at least three runs in five different innings Friday and had a pair of six-run outbursts, the last of which gave them the lead for good in the seventh inning.
After
Nate Wodka (Allen, TX/Allen) set the Panthers (8-12, 8-9 GLVC) down in order in the first, the Miners grabbed a 3-0 lead in the bottom half as the first three hitters reached base via two walks and a hit batter.
Keegan Baxmeyer's (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) sacrifice fly scored the first run of the frame, then
Tate Morrell (Lloydminster, AB) doubled to the opposite field to drive in the other two runs.
Drury got a run in the second, then scored six times in the third after the first two hitters were retired. The Panthers took the lead on a bases loaded double off the bat of Riley Herron, then DJ McNew followed with a two-run homer to close the scoring in the inning.
S&T answered right back with a six-spot their its own in the bottom of the frame as the first six Miners reached base and all of them went on to score.
Michael Ward (Hazelwood, MO/Hazelwood West) drew a leadoff walk and
Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) was hit by a pitch before Baxmeyer doubled to the opposite field to plate Ward. Morrell followed by rifling a double past the first base bag to pull the Miners back to within a run before scoring himself to tie the contest on
Andrew Branson's (St. James, MO/St. James) double.
Braden Mahurin (Dixon, MO/Dixon) drew a walk and executed a double steal with Branson, with a wild throw on the play allowing Branson to score to put S&T up 8-7. Mahurin would score moments later on a hit by
Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo).
The Panthers closed the gap to a run in the fifth, but the Miners pushed three more runs across in their half of the inning, two scoring on a triple by
Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) and the other on
Doug Wood's (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) sacrifice fly. However, Drury came right back and put another six-run inning on the scoreboard in the sixth to retake the lead and tacked on another tally in the seventh.
Trailing 15-12 entering the bottom of the seventh, the Miners again had their first six runners reach base and saw all six eventually score as they took the advantage in the contest.
Hayes drew a leadoff walk and was chased home on a double into the right center gap off the bat of Wood. Ward followed with a hit to send Wood to third, then Weiner hit a ground ball that went off the glove of the shortstop to score a run.
Baxmeyer singled to load the bases, then a wild pitch allowed Ward to come home with the tying run. Morrell then delivered his third run-scoring hit of the game, a single that fell in down the line in left, to score two more runs and put the Miners into the lead. Morrell would score the sixth run of the inning when Hayes drew a walk with the bases loaded.
The Miners got three more runs in the eighth, one on Ward's sixth home run of the season to open the inning, another on a wild pitch and the third when Voss drew a walk with the bases loaded.
Elijah Gross (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit West), the last of the five pitchers used by the Miners Friday, picked up the win after a strong 2 1/3 innings of work out of the bullpen.
S&T outhit Drury 16-13 in the game with Baxmeyer leading the way with four hits and Morrell getting three to go with his six runs batted in. The Miners also drew 10 walks in the contest and had eight batters hit by pitches.
