KIRKSVILLE, Mo. –
Dylan Mollett (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) recorded seven strikeouts while giving up two hits and zero runs in 6.1 innings, helping the Miners get their sixth straight win. The 5-3 victory also included a save for
Cody Hazzard (Mazon, IL/Yorkville Christian), his second of the season.
The Miners got off to a fast start, with the first three batters of the game getting hits to load the bases with no outs. A hit by pitch during
Tyler Prince's (Mexico, MO/Mexico) at bat would bring
Jack Bell (Andover, KS/Andover Central) home, followed by a sacrifice fly by
Logan Alexander (Olathe, KS/Olathe Northwest) bringing in
Kenneth Sugi (North Vancouver, BC/Carson Graham Secondary) to give the Miners a 2-0 lead.
Mollett walked the first batter of the game but would get an assist from
Matt Souza (Escondido, CA/Christian) when the runner was caught stealing during the next at bat. A popout and a strikeout would put away the next two batters and send the game into the second. Both teams went "three up-three down" in the second, with Mollett grabbing another two strikeouts.
The Miners drew a pair of walks with two outs on the board in the third but wouldn't get a chance to capitalize on it when a fielders choice out at second ended the inning. The bottom of the third yielded two more strikeouts for Mollett and another pickoff at second for Souza.
After another uneventful inning took the game into the top of the fifth, Sugi scored the first run in four innings with a solo home run to right field. No one scored for the remained of the fifth or the sixth, although Mollett gave up his first hit of the day to the fourth batter in the sixth.
In the top of seventh, a single by Bell set up a two run home run for
Nick Krodinger (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto), as the Miners extended their lead to 5-0. With one out and runners on first and second in the seventh inning,
Jake Schisler (Quincy, IL/Quincy Notre Dame) took over pitching duties, although he wouldn't last long. He threw a wild pitch in his first at bat but struck out the batter, putting the Miners an out away from ending the inning. An error by the third baseman would allow the Bulldogs' first run of the day to score, making it 5-1. Eli Gross would come in to pitch and end the inning with a strikeout against the first batter he faced.
Bell would get his third hit of the day in the top of the eighth with a double but was left stranded. Gross would give up three hits and two earned runs in the bottom of the eighth, being replaced by Hazzard who would end the inning with a strikeout to send the game into the final inning. Another "three up-three down" for the Miners in the top of the ninth would wrap up the Miners last at bat, with S&T up two. Hazzard would close out the game and earn the save in just four at bats, getting one more strikeout along the way.
Bell, Krodinger, and Sugi were the only batters to record hits today, with Bell's 3 hits in 5 at bats being the most. Mollett's record is now 4-2 and he has had 15 strikeouts and only given up 5 hits in his last two games.
The next installment of the Miners-Bulldogs series will be a doubleheader tomorrow at 1 p.m.
