Central Missouri News

QUINCY, Ill. - The Missouri S&T baseball team continued its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule with the first of two doubleheaders at Quincy and played to a split on Friday, as Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) tied a school record in game one in the Miners' 20-10 win before the Hawks took the nightcap 5-4 on a walk-off single by Nolan Wosman.

Hampton tied the Miners' single-game mark for runs batted in as he drove in eight in the first game, half of them coming on a grand slam home run as S&T posted its best offensive performance of the season to pick up its first conference win of the year.

Game 1:

The Miners came out swinging out of the box as six of the first seven S&T batters reached base and scored six times before the first out was recorded. After S&T loaded the bases, Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette) reached base on an error by Joe Huffman that scored Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) and Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) to allow the Miners to take an early 2-0 lead.

Tommy Ruether (Washington, MO/Washington) followed with a single to right center that scored Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North), then Hampton followed with a double down the left field line that scored Weiner for his first RBI of the day. 

Later in the inning, Sam Monroe (Moline, Ill./Moline) drove in two with a hit and after Quincy went to its bullpen, the Miners continued putting runs on the board as Monroe scored on a wild pitch, Wood drew a walk with the bases loaded to force in a run and Weiner scored Berkhoff on a fielder's choice to put the Miners up by nine before the Hawks came to bat.

Dylan Mollett (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) allowed back-to-back solo home runs to Gino D'Alessio and Luke Napleton in the first to cut the lead to 9-2, but settled down as held the Hawks to only one additional run through the third.

In the fourth, S&T stayed aggressive in the box as Weiner led off the inning by legging out an infield single and Ruether followed with a double to right. Hampton doubled down the left field line to score Ruether and Weiner to make it 11-3 and Hughes brought in Hampton with a sacrifice fly later in the inning to restore the Miners' nine-run advantage. 

Quincy cut the lead to 12-6 in the bottom of the inning on a three-run homer by Cody Erickson, but the Miners answered back in the fifth when Hampton delivered a grand slam over the center field wall to make it 16-6. Later in the inning, Wood cleared the bases with a double into the right center field gap to increase the S&T lead to 19-6.  

The Hawks scored three in the fifth on a two-run double by Lance Logsdon and a Wosman RBI single, but in the following inning, Hampton got his record-tying RBI on his second homer of the game, a solo shot over the left field wall.

Hampton went four-of-five at the plate as the Miners outhit Quincy 16-12 in the opener. Wood also had four runs batted in and was among four other Miners that had two hits in the contest.

Kyle Athmer (Albers, IL/Breese Central Community) got the win on the mound as he combined with Mollett and Jacob Cook (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community) to strike out 12 Hawks in the game; all three hurlers had four strikeouts apiece.  

Game 2:

The Miners took the early lead in game two, as Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) led off with a single, stole second and advanced to third when the throw went into center field and scored on a Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) ground out. However, the Hawks evened the score in the bottom of the inning when S&T starter Estin McBroom (Monett, MO/Monett) threw a wild pitch that allowed Dustin Dupont to score.

S&T regained the lead in the third after getting its first two runners on base and went up when Sill struck out, but a wild pitch on strike three allowed Matt Souza (Escondido, CA/Christian) to cross the plate. Wood followed with a sacrifice fly that brought home Aaron Berkhoff (Colorado Springs, CO/Cheyenne Mountain) to put S&T up 3-1.

In the bottom half of that inning, Quincy tied the game at three on a Logsdon sacrifice fly and a two-out single Austin Simpson, then took the lead in the fourth when on a Joe Huffman solo homer to give the Hawks their first lead of the day at 4-3. 

Trailing 4-3 in the seventh, Jack Arbuckle (Webster Groves, MO/Webster Groves) led off the inning with an infield single to third baseman. Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) entered the game as a pinch runner and stole second, then Berkhoff singled to left and Voss came around to score the tying run on a fielding error from Dupont in left field. 

But in the bottom of the seventh, S&T reliever Elijah Gross (Lee's Summit, MO/Lee's Summit West) got in trouble after allowing a single and a walk before Wosman singled through the left side to score Seth West with the game-winning run. 

The Hawks outhit S&T in game two, as S&T got two hits from Berkhoff. McBroom pitched 4.1 innings and struck out three batters while Gross pitched two innings and struck out two. 

The series will conclude with a doubleheader Sunday with the first pitch at noon in Quincy, Ill.  

Original source can be found here.