ROLLA, Mo. - The S&T baseball team opened its 2023 season with a 10-8 victory in its first-of-four game series as
Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) and
Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) led the Miners with two runs batted each at S&T Ballpark.
Dylan Mollett (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) got the start as he cruised through the first inning recording a scoreless first.
Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) led off with a double for S&T and scored on a
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) single to right. Later in the inning,
Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) reached on a fielder's choice and later stole second base to get in scoring position.
Sam Monroe (Moline, Ill./Moline) followed by driving in Weiner on a single to right field that gave S&T an early 2-0 lead.
Wayne State scored three in the second to take the lead, but the Miners answered back in the bottom half as
Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) with a single to left field and
Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) sacrificed him in into scoring position. After a stolen base by Hampton,
Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain) grounded out to second base that score him to tie the game at 3-3.
In the top of the third, Mollett retired Noah Strizek with a flyout to left field to get the first out before Colin Lynam cleared the left field fence for a home run to give the Wildcats a 4-3 lead, but Wildcat starting pitcher Brady Sintek ran into trouble in the bottom of the inning after retiring the first two hitters. Monroe was hit by a pitch, then
Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) reached on an error before Hampton blasted a triple down the left field line to score Monroe and Voss as the Miners regained the lead at 5-4.
S&T increased its lead in the fourth when
Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) drove in
Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain), who had singled to begin the inning, then after a double by Sill,
Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 7-4. The Miners got another run before the inning ended when Sill stole third and then scored on a wild pitch.
The Wildcats trimmed the lead to 8-6 in the fifth before
Jacob Cook (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community) got the final two outs to stop the damage, then the Miners got those runs back in the bottom of the frame. After a single by Hughes single, Burgess reached second on a throwing error that allowed Hughes to come all the way around to score. Burgess would then steal third and scored when Sill doubled to left field.
Wayne State scored twice in the sixth to cut the margin to 10-8, but
Matthew Kaiser (St. Louis, MO/Vianney) got the final out of the inning to keep the Miners in the lead.
Elijah Gross (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit West) closed out the win for the Miners by recording the final six outs.
Individually for S&T, Sill led with three hits, while Burgess – who scored three times -- and Hampton each recorded two hits each. On the mound, Mollett pitched the first 4.1 innings, then Cook and Kaiser delivered one and one-third innings each before Gross got the save.
The Miners will continue this four-game series with a doubleheader tomorrow starting at 11 a.m. at the S&T Ballpark.
