ST. LOUIS, Mo. – In the midst of a scramble to make the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament field, Missouri S&T's baseball team lost both ends of a doubleheader Saturday at Maryville as the Saints took victories by scores of 4-3 and 5-2.
The losses dropped S&T to 24-21 and 15-16 in GLVC play and leaves the Miners in the eighth spot in the standings with one game remaining in the conference schedule; the top eight finishers will qualify for next week's GLVC Tournament. The Miners are one game in back of Indianapolis and one-half game ahead of Missouri-St. Louis, who will host Illinois Springfield in a doubleheader on Sunday while the Miners finish their series against the Saints.
Game 1: Saints 4, Miners 3
S&T took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when
Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) drew a walk, then stole second and moved to third on a fly ball by
Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) before scoring on a hit by
Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville). However, Maryville answered back in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of runs, getting the first on an RBI single by Elias Stevens and the other on a double steal.
The game remained that way until the fifth, when the Miners got a leadoff homer from Sill to tie the game and then took the lead later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by
Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain) that that brought in Hampton. However, Maryville tied the score up in its half of the fifth when Stevens belted a home run off S&T starter
Ethan Morrow (Lenexa, KS/Shawnee Mission West).
Stevens then drove in the winning run for Maryville in the bottom of the seventh when he doubled into the gap in left center off reliever
David Kephart (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) to allow Michael Gould – who walked to start the inning -- to score from first.
Hampton had two of the Miners' six hits as they were outhit 7-6. Morrow struck out six in his five innings of work.
Game 2: Saints 5, Miners 2
After S&T starter
Ben Belgrave (Cary, IL/Cary-Grove) set the Saints down in order in the first, Maryville got to him in the second as after the first two batters walked, Michael Long hit a three-run blast to right to give the Saints a 3-0 lead.
The Miners got one of the runs back in the third when
Nick Krodinger (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) scored on a
Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) groundout, but Maryville scored again in the bottom of the frame on a bases-loaded walk. S&T got a run closer again in the fourth when
Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) led off with a double and later scored on a Krodinger ground out to cut the lead to 4-2.
S&T had a threat in the sixth when Weiner walked with one out and
Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair) singled with two down, but the Miners tried a double steal that was unsuccessful when Weiner was thrown out at the plate. Maryville then added an insurance run on a leadoff home run by Camden Rudy.
The Miners outhit the Saints 8-6, but no Miner had more than one hit in the contest. Belgrave took the loss on the mound for the Miners.
Sunday's regular season finale will get underway at noon.
