The Missouri S&T baseball team split a doubleheader with Quincy University for the second day in succession at the S&T Baseball Field, winning game one by the score of 3-2 before the Hawks salvaged the nightcap and a split in the weekend series with a 9-6 win in 10 innings.
The split leaves the Miners 2 1/2 games behind Drury for the second and last guaranteed spot from the Great Lakes Valley Conference's West Division for the conference tournament heading into the final week of play. S&T closes its season with a four-game series next weekend at Southern Illinois Edwardsville and still has a doubleheader with Missouri-St. Louis to play if necessary.
In Sunday's first game, the Miners got all of their scoring done in the opening inning. With one out, Gerad Fox singled and came home on a triple by Zac Carter. Thomas McCormick followed with a sacrifice fly to bring in Carter, then Eaf Redden belted a home run to give the Miners a 3-0 advantage.
The Hawks got on the board in the second when Adam Terstreip hit a leadoff homer off Brian Rickert, then got to within one by putting together a two-out rally in the sixth. Matt Campbell took over with the tying and go-ahead runs on base and got pinch-hitter Jake Schaake to fly out to end the inning.
Kyle Griffin got out of a jam in the top of the seventh to get the save, getting pinch-runner Tanner Jacobs at the plate to prevent the tying run from scoring.
S&T had five hits in game one. Rickert improved to 3-2 with the win as he struck out eight and allowed just five hits in 5 2/3 innings of work.
S&T had to battle back from an early 5-0 deficit in the second game and forced extra innings, but the Hawks tallied three runs in the tenth to get the win.
Quincy scored a run in the first and four in the third to build the 5-0 lead, then the Miners got a run in the bottom half of the third on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Vance. After Quincy got that run back in the fourth, the Miners cut the lead to 6-3 in the fifth on a two-run single by Cody Bass.
S&T drew to within one at 6-5 when McCormick delivered an RBI triple in the sixth and scored on a sacrifice fly by Redden, then tied the game two innings later.
Redden led off the eighth with a hit and went all the way to third when the ball skipped past centerfielder Justin Ritchhart. Yaimel Javier-Cury followed with a hit up the middle to tie the game.
The Miners had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth as they got their leadoff man on and eventually loaded the bases, but Colt Johnson's liner was caught in center to end the inning.
Quincy took the lead in the tenth off reliever Alex Dunn on a run-scoring hit by Chris Scoggins, then got a two-run single from Terstreip later in the inning. The Miners were able to load the bases with two outs in their half of the inning, but Max McCorvie was able to retire Carter to end the game.
S&T had 14 hits in the nightcap, with Cogan and Bass getting three hits apiece and Fox and McCormick getting two each. McCormick drove in runs in both games and has now driven in a run in 13 of the Miners' last 14 contests.
The Miners will open the four-game set at SIUE Friday with a single game at 7 p.m.
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