Miners rebound to earn twinbill split with NKU

Thomas McCormick

After suffering a one-sided defeat in the opening game of its weekend series with Northern Kentucky, the Missouri S&T baseball team rebounded in a big way to start game two and gain a split of Friday's doubleheader at the S&T Baseball Field.

The Miners took the nightcap 7-4, thanks to four runs batted in from Thomas McCormick and a solid relief outing from Brian Rickert, after NKU routed the Miners 15-3 in game one.

S&T spotted the Norse a run in the first inning of the second game, but got to Norse starter Dave Middendorf right off the bat by scoring five times in the first.

Gerad Fox and Zac Carter opened the game with back-to-back doubles to tie the game, then Yaimel Javier-Cury drove in a run with one out to put S&T in front. After Cody Bass was hit by a pitch, Brandon Cogan delivered an RBI double to make it 3-1.

McCormick followed with the first of his two run-scoring hits in the nightcap as he brought home Bass and Cogan with a hit to stake starter Caleb Smith with a 5-1 lead.

Smith, however, got into trouble in the second as he allowed a leadoff double and a pair of walks to load the bases. Rickert entered the game and after allowing an RBI single to Brett Hofmann, got out of the inning without allowing another run.

From that point, Rickert didn't allow another hit until the fifth, by which time the Miners had extended their lead to 7-2.

S&T got those runs in the third when McCormick singled home a pair of runs after the Norse had made two errors ahead of it to put the runners in scoring position.

NKU got one run back in the sixth and scored another with two outs in the seventh, but Kyle Griffin got the final out to preserve the win.

The Miners had nine hits in the second game with Fox, Javier-Cury and McCormick having two apiece. Rickert gave up just four hits and struck out three in his five innings of relief work to get the victory.

In the opener, the Norse jumped on S&T starter Andrew Page for two runs in the first and added four unearned tallies in the third, then scored five times in the fifth and four in the sixth.

The Miners got their first run in the fourth when McCormick doubled in Javier-Cury, then McCormick blasted a two-run homer in the sixth for the other two runs.

McCormick finished the day with seven runs batted in and went four-of-seven at the plate.

The Miners (8-9) will host NKU (6-10) in another doubleheader Saturday starting at noon.