ROLLA, Mo. - The Missouri S&T baseball team used a big second inning to propel it to a victory Monday afternoon and complete a sweep of its four-game series with Hillsdale at the S&T Ballpark, winning the series finale by a count of 14-4.

The Miners (8-3), who extended their winning streak to five games with Monday's win, got a huge day from Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) and Nick Krodinger (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) as they each drove in four runs and Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) added a three-run home run in the victory. 
 
Hillsdale grabbed the early lead in the contest with a run in the opening inning on a double by Will Shannon that scored Danny Passinault. S&T starter Matthew Kaiser (St. Louis, MO/Vianney) escaped further trouble by getting a strikeout and a fly out to end the inning. 

After failing to score in the first, the Miners then broke loose in the second with a six-run outburst. Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) drew a walk and reached third when he stole second and throw went into center field. Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) followed with a walk and he stole second to get into scoring position. 
 
With one out, Hughes gave S&T the lead with a double to the right center field gap to score both runners. Moments later, Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) singled to the opposite field to score Hughes and Wood followed by blasting a three-run home run over the center field fence to give the Miners a 6-1 lead.

S&T continued to add onto its lead, getting two more runs in the third on a sacrifice fly by Logan Alexander (Olathe, KS/Olathe Northwest) and an RBI single by Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) before Hillsdale got two itself in the fourth on a two-run homer by Joe Hardenbergh. However, the Miners responded with three in the bottom half of that inning – all coming in with two outs as a pair scored on an hit by Krodinger and the third was driven in by Hughes on a single to the opposite field.

Hilldale got a run in the sixth on a Zak Kent solo homer to right, but S&T got that run back in the bottom of the sixth when Hughes drove in his fourth run of the contest and Krodinger ended the game in the eighth due to the run rule when he belted a two-run homer.

The Miners racked up 11 hits in the contest as Hughes had three while Sill and Krodinger had two apiece. S&T used five pitchers in the contest in short stints and that group allowed a total of only four hits and struck out 14. Kaiser, who threw the first three innings, picked up his first win of the season.

Nate Wodka (Allen, TX/Allen), one of the five pitchers used by S&T, had six of the strikeouts as he fanned six of the seven batters he faced.
 
The Miners will open Great Lakes Valley Conference competition with a four-game series this weekend against William Jewell.  The series will begin Friday with a 4 p.m. single game in Liberty, Mo. 
 
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