ROLLA, Mo. – In a cold and windy game today, the Miners took down the Bisons 15-14 with a walkoff win. In his first game back from injury,
Jack Bell (Andover, KS/Andover Central) recorded 4 hits in 6 at bats, second only to
Kenneth Sugi's (North Vancouver, BC/Carson Graham Secondary) 4 hits in 5 at bats with 3 RBIs.
Starting pitcher
Elijah Gross (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit West) retired the first three batters of the game with ease, getting a pair of strikeouts along the way. Bell led off in the bottom of the first, starting the Miners' inning with a double. He would come home shortly after on a homerun by Sugi that put the Miners up two. After three walks loaded the bases for S&T, a hit by pitch on
Michael Streb (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) gave the Miners another run, leading to a 3-0 for the home team at the end of the first inning.
The Bisons would score two runs in the top of the second, but the Miners would answer with two singles in the second that led to a 4-2 entering the third inning. Gross's day would end in the third after giving up three runs and three hits, with
Matt Ellingson (Lenexa, KS/Olathe Northwest) come in and closing out the half inning with S&T down one. After a scoreless third for the Miners, the Bisons added another pair of runs to their lead as Ellingson was replaced by
Matthew Kaiser (St. Louis, MO/Vianney). The next four half innings would see each team score two runs, bringing the score to 9-6 in the Bisons favor entering the bottom of the sixth.
In the bottom of the sixth, after a single by Bell and a HBP on
Sam Monroe (Moline, Ill./Moline) put runners on first and second, a single by Sugi would bring a run home with
Aiden Cizek (Wildwood, MO/Lafayette) bringing home two more with a double not long after as the Miners tied the game at 9-9. After a scoreless seventh for both teams,
Cody Hazzard (Mazon, IL/Yorkville Christian) would take over pitching for
Dylan Bates (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt West) to start the eighth. Hazzard started things off with a strikeout, but things quickly went downhill after that, as he would give up three runs, two singles and three walks before being replaced by
Dylan Wipf (Oak Park, IL/River Forest). Wipf would walk his first batter while the bases were loaded, giving the Bisons a 13-9 lead before the inning ended on a line out to
Tyler Prince (Mexico, MO/Mexico) at shortstop.
Bell got things going in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homerun. It would be the first of four hits for the Miners in the inning as they scored five runs to take a 14-13 lead. Any hope of ending the game in the top of the ninth went out the window with the first at bat when the Bisons' batter hit a solo homerun to tie the game at 14-all. A hit by pitch and a walk would lead to Wipf's removal, with
Jacob Cook (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community) taking the mound and closing out the inning with a couple of strikeouts. Needing just one run to win the game, the Miners were gifted three free bases off a couple of HBPs and an error by Harding, forcing the Bisons to go for the out at home, which they would fail to get as the Miners won 15-14 off an error by the Bisons' second baseman.
Jacob Cook (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community) earned the win for his performance in the top of the ninth and is now 2-1 on the season. The Miners will be back at the Ballpark at S&T for a four game series against Upper Iowa that starts this Friday.
