SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- The Miner baseball team extended its winning streak to a season-high five games Saturday by sweeping defending Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament champion Drury -- and moving ahead of the Panthers in the race for one of the final spots in this year's tournament.
Missouri S&T blasted the Panthers 16-4 in the opener, then rallied from a 5-1 deficit by scoring six runs in the final two innings to complete the sweep with a 7-5 win.
The victories moved S&T into a tie for third place with Quincy in the GLVC West and also the sixth and final playoff spot at the moment in the conference. The Miners are tied with Quincy and Indianapolis for that spot following play on Saturday.
In the opener, the Miners had four multiple-run innings -- scoring at least three times in all of them -- and finished with season highs in both runs and hits (21). S&T took the lead in the second with the first of the multiple-run frames by scoring three times.
Eaf Redden's double scored Thomas McCormick, who had walked to open the inning, to put the Miners on top, then Yaimel Javier-Cury followed with an RBI single to put the Miners ahead 2-0. Later in the inning, Javier-Cury scored on a double by Andrew Vance.
The Miners answered a Drury run in the second with one in the third on a sacrifice fly by McCormick, then busted the game open with a five-run outburst in the fourth. McCormick's two-run homer was the big blow in the inning.
S&T added three more runs in the sixth and four in the ninth. McCormick and Redden hit back-to-back homers in the sixth and then the Miners scored the four runs on six hits in the ninth inning.
McCormick had four hits and five runs batted in to pace the Miners in game one, while Zac Carter, Redden and Vance had three hits apiece.
Andrew Page went the first six innings to earn the win, while Jordan Buck threw two scoreless innings and Alex Dunn pitched the ninth.
Drury got the jump on the Miners in the nightcap, scoring a run in the third and four in the fifth after S&T had tied the contest in the top half of the inning on Javier-Cury's leadoff homer.
The Miner rally started when Carter was hit by a pitch with one out in the sixth and scored on a triple by McCormick. After Redden reached base when was plunked by a Chris Marston pitch, Javier-Cury brought home McCormick with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.
Justin Skinner took over on the mound for the Panthers to start the seventh, but ran into immediate trouble when he issued a leadoff walk to Vance. Gerad Fox followed with a single, then Cody Bass reached on an infield single that brought home Vance. A subsequent throwing error on the play allowed Fox to come around to score the tying run.
After a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk to McCormick, who had a perfect day at the plate with six hits in six at-bats, Skinner threw a wild pitch to allow the go-ahead run to score. A passed ball moved McCormick to third and he came home on a sacrifice fly by Redden.
Danny Trenner, who came in the game with two outs in the sixth to get the Miners out of the inning, threw a perfect seventh to pick up the win in relief. Bass had three hits to lead the offensive attack for S&T (16-17, 10-10 GLVC), which will conclude the weekend series with a doubleheader Sunday at noon.
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