Eaf Redden

The Miners were an out away from a victory Saturday, but couldn't get the third out before Quincy staged a four-run rally with two outs to stun UMR 12-10 in the first game of a doubleheader at the UMR Baseball Field.

In the nightcap, the Hawks held off Miner comeback attempts in three of the final four innings to win 2-1 and complete the sweep of the Great Lakes Valley Conference twinbill.

UMR fell behind 5-2 in game one after Quincy scored three times in the top of the third off starter Brandon Cogan, but scored eight unanswered runs in the next two innings to take a 10-5 lead.

Five of the runs came in the third with a rally that started with a one-out single by Gerad Fox. After he stole second, Cody Bass drew a walk and Eaf Redden singled to left to score Fox. An error on the hit advanced the runners to second and third, then Thomas McCormick dropped a single into left to score both runners to tie the score.

A wild pitch and a double by Joe Montgomery gave UMR its first lead of the game, which was followed by another run-scoring hit off the bat of Matt Campbell that gave UMR a 7-5 lead.

The Miners scored three more off reliever Robby Young in the fourth, with a balk bringing in the first run. Redden followed that with a two-run homer to give UMR the five-run advantage.

After Quincy got a run back in the fifth, UMR had a chance to extend that lead in the bottom of the inning when Jared Alexander walked the bases loaded. However, Brad Shaeffer entered the game and got Robbie Martin to fly out to get the Hawks out of the inning.

Quincy drew to within two at 10-8 by scoring twice off Ben Sherman in the sixth, but Brian Rickert came in and got Matt Nichols to hit into a double play on his first pitch to close the inning.

In the seventh, Quincy's first two hitters reached base but Rickert got a foul out and a strikeout to put the Miners within an out of the victory. But an infield single by ninth place hitter Matt Scoggins loaded the bases and kept the inning going, then Nathan Warner doubled just inside the bag at third to score two and tie the game.

Joe Palumbo followed Warner's double by hitting a ball into the hole between first and second; Owen Madison got to the ball but his throw was late, allowing Scoggins to score the go-ahead run. The Hawks added another run in the inning to close the scoring.

UMR got its first two runs in the opening inning -- after Quincy had scored twice -- with consecutive hits by Fox, Bass and Redden bringing in the first tally and the second run scoring on a double play.

The Miners had 13 hits in the game, four of which came from Fox and three from Redden. Redden, who hit the first home run of the season at home since GLVC play started, drove in four runs.

The teams combined to use 10 pitchers in the first game.

While the offenses dominated the opener, starting pitchers Tavish Hill for the Miners and Greg Dowdall for QU took matters into their own hands in the second game.

Quincy got an early lead when Palumbo tripled and Nick Dunning drove him in with a ground out, then the pitchers took over from there.

Neither team scored again until the ninth, as Hill scattered eight hits in eight-plus innings but was outdueled by Dowdall, who gave up seven hits and struck out four in a complete game effort.

The Miners had chances to score in the sixth when Cogan bunted his way on and stole second, but McCormick was retired on a grounder to second to end that threat. UMR got two more runners on base in the seventh, but Palumbo made a sliding catch on a flare off the bat of Yaimel Javier-Cury to halt that chance.

The Hawks got an RBI single from Jose Mendez in the ninth to take a two-run lead. McCormick tripled to open the bottom of the ninth and scored on Colt Johnson's sacrifice fly, but that was all the Miners could get.

McCormick had three of UMR's seven hits in game two.

The Miners (16-26, 9-23 GLVC) and Hawks (27-18, 18-14 GLVC) will wrap up the weekend series with a single game Sunday at noon.