ROLLA, Mo. – After allowing a three-run lead slip out of its hands in the late innings of game two, Missouri S&T's baseball team gained a split of its Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader Saturday afternoon as
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) singled in the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh for a 5-4 win over Southwest Baptist.
SBU took the opener 5-3 to pick up its second win of the four-game series that will wrap up Sunday when the teams face off at 11 a.m. at the S&T Ballpark.
The Miners (17-18, 13-14 GLVC) carried a 4-1 lead into the sixth inning of the nightcap before the Bearcats (16-19, 12-18 GLVC) got three consecutive run-scoring hits in the top half of the frame, the last being an RBI single by Eli Smock that tied the game at four.
S&T had a chance to grab the lead in the bottom of the sixth when it loaded the bases on an error and two walks, but Josh Scott hauled in
Keegan Baxmeyer's (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) drive at the fence to end the inning. However, after
Dylan Dunbar (West Plains, MO/West Plains) pitched around a leadoff single in the seventh, Scott got turned around on a ball hit over his head by
Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James) that landed for a double to start the S&T seventh.
Tate Morrell (Lloydminster, AB) was then hit by a pitch and
Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) reached on an error as he was trying to bunt the runners over to load the bases. SBU reliever Dalton Morrow got an out at the plate on a comebacker by
Brady Wildschuetz (Foristell, MO/Francis Howell), but Sill followed by lining a 1-1 pitch into right to score Morrell with the winning run.
The Miners took the lead in game two in the second when Wildschuetz singled in Branson, then Sill followed with a hit to drive in Voss. After SBU cut the lead in half in the third, the Miners scored twice in the bottom half of the inning when Voss delivered a two-run single with two outs to score
Michael Ward (Hazelwood, MO/Hazelwood West) and Baxmeyer.
Rian Markes (Columbia, MO/Father Tolton) got the start for S&T and scattered eight hits over 5 1/3 innings before Dunbar picked up the win in relief. Each team had 11 hits in the contest.
The Miners also had the initial lead in game one, scoring in the second when Baxmeyer was hit by a pitch and later scored on
Braden Mahurin's (Dixon, MO/Dixon) ground out. The Bearcats answered back by scoring three times in their half of the third and took the lead on Scott's two-run single.
Scott would homer in his next plate appearance in the sixth to extend the SBU lead to 4-1, then Eli Smock doubled in a run later in the inning. S&T cut the advantage to 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth when
Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) singled and came around to score on a double by Ward.
The Miners made a run at the Bearcats in the seventh, as pinch-hitter
Landon Bell (Seymour, MO/Seymour) tripled the begin the inning, which was followed by an error and a hit batter to load the bases with nobody out.
Morrow took over for SBU starter Ryan Carmack and got Hayes to hit into a fielder's choice and struck out Ward, but a wild pitch on strike three allowed Voss to come in to score and moved the other runners into scoring position. Morrow, however, got Baxmeyer to foul out to end the contest.
The Bearcats outhit S&T 7-4 in game one; S&T starter
Cade Meier (Dakota, IL/Dakota) took the loss despite throwing a complete game and allowing only seven hits.