ROLLA- Mo. - The Missouri S&T baseball team got a big day offensively from
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) and solid pitching throughout the afternoon as it concluded its four-game series with Wayne State (Neb.) with an 8-1 victory Monday at the S&T Ballpark. The victory allowed the Miners to gain a split of the four-game opening series of the 2023 season.
Ben Belgrave (Cary, IL/Cary-Grove) got the start on the mound in the series finale and pitched his way out of some early trouble, as he recorded a strikeout of Nick Ripa with runners on the corners to end the first.
In the bottom of the first,
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) tripled to right field with one out and came home as
Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) reached on an error. After walks to
Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) and
Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty),
Logan Alexander (Olathe, KS/Olathe Northwest) walked to force home Wood to put the Miners up 2-0, then
Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) singled to up the middle to score Voss and Weiner to make it 4-0 as the Miners sent all nine batters to the plate in the opening inning.
Given the four-run lead when he returned to the mound, Belgrave settled in as he finished seven of the next eight hitters he faced, then pitched around a pair of one-out hits in the fourth to complete his four scoreless innings.
Meanwhile, S&T continued to add on to its lead, getting a run in the second when Sill singled to right, stole second base and came home on a single by Wood. That combination put another run on the board in the fourth, as Sill led off the inning with a triple and scored again on a Wood single to center to stretch the lead to 6-0. Sill belted a home run in his next at-bat to lead off the sixth, then the Miners scored their final run of the day when Wood followed with a walk and stolen base that preceded an RBI single by
Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville).
The Miners used four relievers after Belgrave – who got the win -- completed his four innings of work to close out the win.
Matt Ellingson (Lenexa, KS/Olathe Northwest) threw the fifth and sixth, getting Quinn McCafferty to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end the fifth, before
Jacob Cook (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community) struck out the side in the seventh. The Wildcats touched
Nate Kemp (O'Fallon, MO/St. Dominic) for a run in the eighth – as back-to-back walks to Carter Thomas and Colin Lynam were followed by a Jack Jones single to right to score Thomas to get the Wildcats on the scoreboard. S&T called to
Trey Kaberline (Gardner, KS/Gardner-Edgerton) for the ninth inning and he recorded the final three outs.
The five Miner pitchers combined to strike out 10 Wildcats in the contest.
Sill had four of the Miners' 10 hits, going four-of-five with two triples, a single and a solo home run while scoring four times. Wood had three runs batted in while Hughes added two RBI's as well.
The Miners will travel to Alabama Huntsville to begin a four-game series with the Chargers on Friday, with the first game starting at 12:30 p.m. at Charger Park.
