Miners handle defending champion

July 12, 2008 01:07 am

— From staff reports
sports@joplinglobe.com
BOULDER, Colo. — The Joplin Miners, keyed by an 11-hit attack and the pitching of Patrick Bennett, beat defending champion Albuquerque Eldorado Post 49, 6-3, in pool play of the wooden bat Boulder/Legacy NIT Tournament on Friday.
The Miners (19-17 overall, 1-2 in Pool C), already out of running to enter the championship bracket, finish pool play at 9 a.m. (local time) against the Colorado Springs Squirrels. The Miners will play a fifth game on Sunday.
The right-handed Bennett, in Friday’s game at Suitts Field, scattered seven hits and struck out six. He struck out the side in the seventh.
The Miners, with Bennett delivering a two-run single and Corey Simmons plating the third tally with a single, scored three times in the fourth to snap a 2-2 deadlock.
Joplin scored in the second on singles by Simmons, Dane Kolkmeyer and Taylor Byrd and tallied in the third on Shayne Hoke’s solo homer. It was Hoke’s ninth homer of the summer.
Travis Kunce doubled in the seventh, swiped third and eventually scored on Calvin Burr’s fielder’s choice grounder.
Joplin coach Tucker Hagedorn said the Miners pulled a double play to help Bennett escape a sixth-inning jam.
Byrd, Kunce and Simmons each had two hits for Joplin.
Right-hander Jake Brummer is the Miners’ probable starting pitcher against the Squirrels.