ROLLA, Mo. - The Missouri S&T baseball team got off to a quick start in its four-game series against Hillsdale College Saturday, scoring three times in the opening inning and going on to record a 6-2 victory at the S&T Ballpark.

The Miners (5-3) scored three runs in the first, added a run in the fourth and tacked on two more in the sixth to open the series with a victory.
 
After a scoreless opening inning by S&T starter Dylan Mollett (St. Louis, MO/Oakville), the Miners began their half of the first with back-to-back singles from Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) and Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) before Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) walked to load the bases. Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) got hit by a pitch to force in Burgess to get S&T on the scoreboard, then Tommy Ruether (Washington, MO/Washington) singled to right to score Sill to make it 2-0. With one out, Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) scored Wood with a sacrifice fly to complete the first inning scoring. 
 
In the top of the third, the Chargers loaded the bases after a single and back-to-back walks issued by Mollett.  They got their first run when Cody Kanclerz reached on a fielder's choice that scored Joe Hardenbergh, then got a second run across on Nick Stepke single.

After the two-run third by the Chargers, Mollett settled down and pitched two scoreless innings as he ended his five-inning outing with five strikeouts and only two hits allowed.
 
In the bottom of the fourth, Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) and Hampton led off the inning with back-to-back singles.  Voss was thrown out at third on a stolen base attempt as Hampton moved up to second, then Hampton came home on a two-out single by Matt Souza (Escondido, CA/Christian) that gave S&T an insurance run and a 4-2 lead. S&T would get their two runs in the sixth when Burgess delivered a double to the left-center gap that scored Voss and Hampton to go up 6-2.

The Miners got four innings of scoreless relief work, two from Matthew Kaiser (St. Louis, MO/Vianney) and the last two from Elijah Gross (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit West), although the Chargers had the tying run at the plate in the ninth after two hits and a hit batter.  Gross preserved the win by striking out the final two hitters. 
 
S&T outhit the Chargers 10-5, getting two hits apiece from Burgess and Ruether; Burgess also drove in a pair of runs. The Chargers (5-5) were led in hits by Hardenbergh with two and he also scored once.    
 
The series continues Sunday with a doubleheader starting at noon at the S&T Ballpark.
 
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