East Peoria, Ill. -  The Missouri S&T softball team kept its 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Championship Tournament hopes alive as a six-run fourth inning propelled the Miners to a 10-3 elimination game victory over Truman State in this Thursday's (May 3) league tourney second-round action at the Eastside Centre Complex.    
 
S&T, which entered the tourney as the eighth seed, will play number two seed McKendree on Friday (May 4) at 11 a.m. CT on Field 2 with the winner advancing to the quarterfinal round.  The Miners began today with a 5-1 opening-game setback to top-seed and nationally-ranked Illinois Springfield.
 
Truman State, which concluded its season at 26-20 overall as a result of the loss in the double-elimination tournament, snapped a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning by scoring twice to claim a 2-0 lead as the Bulldogs utilized three consecutive hits to account for the game's initial score.
 
TSU's lead didn't last long, not even an inning as a S&T runner crossed home plate six times in the top of the fourth to erase its deficit and garner a 6-2 lead.  The six runs scored by S&T in the fourth inning were the most a Miners team has scored in a conference tournament game inning since 1983.  A two-run single by junior first baseman Gretchen Elgy and a freshman designated player Ashley Davis (Erie, Ill./Erie)' RBI double brought home three Miner runs after a fielder's choice by sophomore shortstop Abby Klein (Kansas City, MO/Staley) netted S&T's first run in the fourth frame.  Sophomore outfielder Oliva Young drew a bases-loaded walk for an RBI, which represented her 55th of this season and is now one away from tying the Miners' single-season record of 56 set by Holly Weinberg in the 2006 season.
 
In the top of the sixth, S&T increased its lead to 9-2 with a trio of runs.   Junior outfielder Carley Hamann (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way North) singled to knock in a run and junior catcher Lauren King (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt North) doubled to bring home two more as the Miners racked up four hits in the frame.  Truman State got a run back in the bottom of the inning on a solo home run from pinch-hitter Kayla Quanstrum before the Miners answered back with a seventh-inning run as Carley Hamann (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way North) posted a RBI single to score Abby Klein (Kansas City, MO/Staley), who reached base on a single as well.
 
Senior pitcher Kati Viets (Sweet Springs, Mo./Sweet Springs) earned the victory and improved her record to 9-11 on the season.  Viets scattered seven hits and gave up three runs while walking three and striking out two Bulldog hitters.  Alyssa Hajduk started for Truman State and took the loss, concluding her 2018 campaign with a 12-7 pitching mark.  All but three of S&T's 10 runs were unearned.  Hajduk allowed three hits, walked six, and struck out five over 3 1/3 innings.  Reliever Lauren Dale gave up eight hits, four runs, and fanned two over the final 3 2/3 innings. 
 
Missouri S&T, which evens its season record to 26-26 overall, was paced in hitting by Abby Klein (Kansas City, MO/Staley), Gretchen Egly (Joliet, Ill./Plainfield Central), and Carley Hamann (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln Way North) as the three all recorded two hits each. Egly and Hamann's two RBIs apiece lead all players in the game for the Miners, who left 11 runners on base while the Bulldogs stranded seven on the base paths.  Ashley Murphy's two hits was tops for Truman State.