Central Missouri News

LIBERTY, Mo. - The Missouri S&T baseball team concluded its four-game series against William Jewell Sunday afternoon by dropping both ends of the doubleheader, as the Miners fell 8-7 in eight innings in game one and 15-7 in the series finale at Talley Stadium.  

Game 1:

S&T (8-7, 0-4 GLVC) got on the scoreboard in the first, starting as Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) tripled down the right field line and scored on a ground out by Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) to take the early lead.

Ethan Morrow (Lenexa, KS/Shawnee Mission West) took the mound pitched back-to-back scoreless innings at the outset, but ran into trouble in the third. William Jewell (13-3 4-0 GLVC) loaded the bases on two walks and a single, then a walk to Cole Conner got the Cardinals got on the board. Will Brant followed by reaching on a fielder's choice to score Jake Wilcox to break the tie. 

Later in the inning with runners on the corners, Morrow attempted to pick off Will Brant breaking to second. First baseman Garrett Wiener attempted to throw out Alex Epp out at third as he broke for the plate, but a wild throw allowed Epp to score. William Jewell added two more runs in the fourth on a Conner single that scored Kaden Owens and Quincy Aldrich that made the game 5-1.

In the fifth, however, S&T exploded for five runs to take the lead. The scoring started on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Wood that scored Michael Hughes (St. Clair, MO/St. Clair). Weiner cut the deficit to two on a sacrifice fly that scored Nick Krodinger (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) as each runner advanced 90 feet on the play, then Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to one.

Moments later, Tommy Ruether (Washington, MO/Washington) tied the game at five with a single up the middle that scored Wood, then Sam Monroe (Moline, Ill./Moline) gave S&T the lead on a two-out single to center that scored Ruether.

S&T went to reliever Elijah Gross (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit West) out of the bullpen in the bottom of the fifth and he worked out of a jam in that inning, but the Cardinals took the lead in the sixth when Epp belted a two-run homer.

In the seventh, with the Miners down to their final out, pinch-hitter Matt Souza (Escondido, CA/Christian) beat out an infield single to short that scored Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) with the tying run before Gross struck out two batters and got a groundout to send the game to extra innings. 

S&T had runners on first and second with one out when Sill attempted to steal third, but Wiener was called out for catcher's interference that killed the scoring opportunity for the Miners as they left two runners on in the inning. 

William Jewell won the game in the bottom of the eighth when Ben Click singled up the middle with two outs to score Epp, who reached on a walk and moved into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt.

Ruether and Monroe with two hits each for the Miners, who were outhit 10-9 in the contest. Kaiser took the loss in relief for the Miners.

Game 2:

Ben Belgrave (Cary, IL/Cary-Grove) got the start in the series finale for the Miners as he ran into early trouble, allowing a solo home run to Jordan Phillips in the second and another run in the frame on doubles by Drew Reed and Dawson Tweet.

The Cardinals added five runs in the third that included a three-run homer off the bat of Epp, an RBI single by Reed and a sacrifice fly by Tweet to go up by seven. 

S&T chipped away at the lead with a four-run fourth inning that started with back-to-back singles by Wood and Weiner, then Ruether singled up the middle that scored Wood.

Wiener and Ruether advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch, then Hampton beat out an infield single that scored Weiner to cut the deficit to five. Ruether scored on a sacrifice fly by Hughes and Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain) followed with an RBI single to left that scored Hampton that cut the deficit to 7-4. 

After WJC added a run in the bottom half of the fourth, S&T continued to cut into the lead with a three-run fifth inning. The first run came when Weiner singled through the left side with the bases loaded to score Burgess, then with two outs, Monroe delivered a two-run single that scored Sill and Wood to cut the deficit to one at 8-7. 

The Cardinals put the game out of reach, however, with seven runs in the sixth inning, capped by a grand slam by Tweet.

Each team had nine hits in the second game; Weiner and Monroe had two apiece and Wood scored twice. S&T starter Belgrave led all Miner pitchers with three strikeouts but the took the loss.

Owens had three hits for the Cardinals and Tweet drove in six runs in the contest. 

The Miners will continue Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a four-game series at Quincy starting next Friday with a single game at 3 p.m. 

Original source can be found here.