The Missouri S&T baseball team got exactly what it needed Thursday in its effort to earn a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament -- a doubleheader sweep over Missouri-St. Louis.
The Miners rallied from a four-run deficit in game one to take a 6-4 victory, then completed the sweep by holding off a late Triton rally for a 5-4 win.
With the sweep, the Miners moved into a tie for fourth place in the GLVC's West Division with Quincy, but are just a game and a half behind second place Drury for the final guaranteed playoff spot. S&T closes its conference slate with a four-game series starting Friday at SIU Edwardsville -- the team in third place in the division -- while Drury hosts division leader Southern Indiana and Quincy hosts Rockhurst over the weekend.
The Miners will need to win at least three of the four games at SIUE to have a chance to make it into the playoffs.
UMSL got two runs in the first inning and two more in the fourth to take the 4-0 lead, but the Miners took advantage of some sloppy defensive play by the Tritons to work its way back into the contest and eventually take the lead.
Cody Bass drove in the first two runs with a two-run double with two outs in the fourth, then Brandon Cogan reached on an error to keep the inning alive. Kyle Boehm followed with a hit past short to score Bass to cut the lead to 4-3.
Another UMSL error, this one on a ball hit by Zac Carter, got the Miners' go-ahead rally going in the fifth. Thomas McCormick doubled into the corner to chase home Carter, then he scored the run to put the Miners in front later in the inning on a hit by Yaimel Javier-Cury.
Andrew Vance's successful squeeze play in the sixth wrapped up the scoring.
David Birkby had a rough opening inning, but settled down to get through five and pick up the victory as he gave up just three hits. Kyle Griffin earned a six-out save and fanned three in the process.
S&T built its 5-1 lead in the nightcap with single runs in five of the first seven innings. The Miners grabbed the early advantage when Carter singled home Vance, then extended its lead to 2-0 in the third when Carter drove in Boehm on a sacrifice fly.
Boehm's RBI single in the fourth made it 3-0, then McCormick drove in a run in the fifth to give the Miners a four-run lead. After the Tritons got on the board in the sixth, the Miners got their four-run lead back on a sacrifice fly by Eaf Redden in the seventh.
UMSL got an unearned run in the eighth off reliever Danny Trenner, then got two off Brian Rickert in the ninth and had the tying and go-ahead runs on base. Rickert got Ryan Ayers on strikes and Steve Porter to fly out to end the game.
Boehm had three hits for the Tritons, while Carter drove in two for S&T. McCormick drove in a run in both games and has at least one RBI in 16 of the Miners' last 17 contests.
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