ROLLA, Mo. – It was the final day of action at the Ballpark at S&T for the first Great Lakes Valley Conference series of the season between Missouri S&T and Truman State. Despite scoring first the Miners (13-8, 2-2) were unable to maintain their advantage and several late rallies were dashed by the Bulldogs (11-17, 2-2) as they took the finale 8-5 to split the first weekend of conference action.
The Miners got on the board in their first at bats of the day when with two outs,
Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James) reached base on an infield single that allowed
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) to cross home for the day's first run.
A two-out two-run single in the top of the second inning by the Bulldogs put the visitors on top before scoring single runs in both the third and fourth innings to extend their lead to 4-1.
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Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) sacrifice fly in the S&T fifth halved the deficit and made it a 4-2 game as Sill again crossed home, but Truman State answered with a run of their own in the sixth on a wild pitch to again make it a three-run game.
After
Dylan Dunbar (West Plains, MO/West Plains) worked a scoreless seventh, the Miners finally found some rhythm at the plate in the bottom of the inning.
Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) reached on an error to lead things off and came around to score three batters later on an RBI groundout by
Tommy Ruether (Washington, MO/Washington). An RBI single from Wood following a pitching change again saw Sill cross home to make it a 5-4 game.
Again, the Bulldogs answered S&T's runs with some of their own, scoring twice in the top of the eighth to push their advantage back to three once more. The Miners looked to bee primed for another rally in the bottom of the inning, but a bit of bad luck saw them come up empty as a lineout double play sent the game to the ninth.
Another TSU run scored on a wild pitch in the final frame to make it 8-4, and while the Miners plate a run on another RBI single by Wood, a comeback was not in the cards as the visitors closed out the game and collected the 8-5 to force a weekend split.
Sill went 2-3 with a pair of walks and scored three times while Wood finished 2-4 with three RBI. Ruther also went 2-4 in the game with an RBI and a run, while
Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James) also recorded a hit and drove in a run.
Nate Wodka (Allen, TX/Allen) (1-1) took the loss on the mound, allowing four runs on seven hits in four innings with six strikeouts.
Ben Belgrave (Cary, IL/Cary-Grove) and Dunbar each worked two innings of relief and allowed an unearned run each and combined for seven strikeouts between them.
The Miners are scheduled to be back in action Friday at the Ballpark at S&T for another Great Lakes Valley Conference series against Lewis beginning at 2 P.M.
