OZARK, Mo. – Missouri S&T fell short in a back-and-forth affair Friday night at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, as Quincy scored two late runs to knock off the Miners 11-9 at U.S. Baseball Park.

J.C. DeMuri's solo home run in the top of the eighth broke a 9-9 tie after S&T had knotted the score in the seventh and helped send the Miners into an elimination game Saturday afternoon against Southern Indiana at 12:30 p.m.  If the Miners win that contest, they will play against Indianapolis immediately following that game at 4 p.m.

After S&T's Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) set the Hawks down in order in the seventh, the Miners tied the score in the bottom half of the inning after the Hawks hit three batters in succession and Alex Pribyl threw a wild pitch on a strikeout of Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) – which would have ended the inning – that allowed pinch runner Jason Volkmann (Liberty, MO/Liberty) to cross the plate.

However, DeMuri homered over the wall in left to lead off the eighth to put the Hawks back into the lead, then Quincy added a run in the ninth when a sacrifice fly scored Brynn Martinez before the third out of the inning was made at first to complete a double play.

Pribyl struck out seven Miners after entering the contest in the seventh, including the first two hitters in the ninth, before a hit by Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) and a walk to Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) put the tying runs on base.  Cole Crawford took over on the mound for Quincy following the walk to Swindle and fanned Gruse to end the contest.

Quincy scored twice in the second to grab the lead, getting the first run on an RBi double by Michael Neilsen and the second on TJ Tamaccio's sacrifice fly.  After getting out of the inning with only the two runs scoring, S&T answered with a five-run bottom half of the second as 11 batters came to the plate.

The inning began with a walk to Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) at the end of a 10-pitch at-bat, then with one out, Justus Nelson (Plymouth, MN/Robbinsdale Armstrong) reached on a fielder's choice after a throw to second was wild, sending Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) to third.  Jack DeGarmo (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) brought home Knickerbocker with a squeeze bunt to get the Miners on the scoreboard.

Moments later, Nelson scored on a wild pitch to tie the score, then the Miners took the lead after a pair of walks loaded the bases and another to Gruse forced in a run.   Conner Forsythe (Farmington, MO/Farmington) followed with a hit to drive in two more runs to give S&T a 5-2 lead after two innings of play.

The Hawks clawed back into the game, scoring single runs in the third and fourth against S&T starter Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville) and then took the lead in the fifth.  Quincy tied the score on Jake Viaene's sacrifice fly and went in front on a two-run single off the bat of Cody Birdsong.

Quincy added to its lead with two runs in the sixth, but the Miners cut the Hawk lead to 9-8 in the bottom half thanks in part to a Hawk error that extended the inning.  With two outs and two runners on base, Gruse reached on an error by Hawk first baseman Troy Wehde that allowed DeGarmo to score and keep the inning alive.

Following a pitching change, Forsythe greeted Karl Hirsch with a single to the opposite field to score Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing), then Lira followed with a hit to drive home Gruse.