ROLLA, Mo. – A windy afternoon at the Ballpark at S&T produced a good deal of offense Sunday and Missouri S&T had just a bit more, rallying from a nine-run deficit to complete a sweep of its four-game series with Missouri-St. Louis with a 18-16 victory.
The Miners (23-19, 14-14 GLVC) used an eight-run seventh inning complete the comeback to capture the sweep of the Great Lakes Valley Conference series at the Ballpark at S&T. It also moved the Miners into a three-way tie for seventh place in the GLVC standings with one weekend of play remaining; S&T drew even with UMSL with the weekend sweep and Indianapolis joined them after completing a sweep of a series at Rockhurst.
UMSL (21-25, 14-14 GLVC) scored twice in the first on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Olion and a solo home run by Mitch Green, then increased its lead to 6-0 in third, highlighted by a three-run homer by Bryce Kulinski. But in the bottom half of the inning, the Miners started cutting into the UMSL advantage.
The inning started when
Tommy Ruether (Washington, MO/Washington) reached on an error, then
Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) was hit by a pitch with one out. With two outs,
Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) ripped a two-run single to left that scored the two runners to get S&T on the board. UMSL starter Adam Rose hit both
Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) and
Sam Monroe (Moline, Ill./Moline) – the latter scoring
Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North), who was hit prior to Hampton's single – then
Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) ripped a two-run single to left that scored Hampton and Hughes that cut the deficit to one at 6-5.
After UMSL scored four in the fourth to increase its lead back to four at 9-5, the Miners got one back in the bottom half on an RBI single to right from Hampton that scored Berkhoff. But in the fifth, UMSL broke the game open with a six-run inning that increased its lead to 15-6 that included a two-run homer by Olion.
The Miners slowly chipped away again at the Triton lead, scoring twice in the fifth when Monroe scored on a wild pitch and
Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain) delivered an RBI single to left that scored Weiner. S&T put another run on the board in the sixth when
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) was hit by a pitch, stole second and third and went on to score after stealing third when Kulinski had trouble finding a wild pitch.
Then came the Miners' eight-run outburst in the seventh.
The inning began with a hit by Ruether and a one-out single by Burgess, then Sill brought both runners home with a double into the gap in right center. Following a Wood single, Hampton followed with an RBI single and Hughes launched a three-run home run – the first of his Miner career -- over the left center field wall to the game.
After the blast, UMSL called upon reliever Dylan Wobbe, but the Miners were not done. After a walk and a hit batter, Berkhoff gave S&T its first lead of the game on a two-out, two-run double into the left field corner that scored Monroe and Weiner.
UMSL scored a run in the eighth, but the Miners answered back with a run as Sill tripled and scored moments later on a wild pitch. The Tritons then loaded the bases in the ninth, but
Matt Ellingson (Lenexa, KS/Olathe Northwest) got Collin Holin on a called third strike to end the game.
Sill, Hampton and Berkhoff all had three hits apiece for S&T and Hampton drove in four. The Miners used six pitchers in the contest, with
David Kephart (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) throwing 3.2 innings of relief to earn his first victory of the season and Ellingson earning his first save.
Kulinski had four hits and seven runs batted in for the Tritons as Brady Krile took the loss.
The Miners will travel to Maryville for their final conference series next weekend, starting Friday with a single game at 2 p.m. in St. Louis.
