ROLLA, Mo. – With only eight games remaining in the Great Lakes Valley Conference season, Missouri S&T's baseball team will look to draw closer to earning a berth to the conference tournament when it hosts West Division co-leader William Jewell in a four-game series at the S&T Baseball Field.

The Miners, 22-18 overall and 16-12 in GLVC play, will face the Cardinals in a pair of twinbills starting at noon on Saturday and Sunday.  Prior to Saturday's games, the four senior members of the Miners will be honored in a pre-game ceremony as the team will be playing its final home games of the season this weekend.

S&T will taking on not only the co-leader in the GLVC's West Divison this weekend – the Cardinals are tied with Quincy at 19-9 in league play and are a league-best 30-11 overall – but also the top team in the NCAA Division II Midwest Region, as William Jewell was atop the first regional rankings that were released Wednesday.

William Jewell won 10 of 11 games in one stretch in March and won all four games from Quincy in their head-to-head meeting earlier this month, but is just 6-5 in its last 11 contests after beating Southwest Baptist 14-4 in a non-league game Tuesday in Liberty, Mo.

The Cardinals do possess one of the top pitching staffs in the GLVC, ranking third with a 3.48 earned run average.  Starter Nick Farleigh has thrown complete games in five of his seven starts and is 4-2 with a 2.67 earned run average, while Austin Kretchmar is tied for the league lead in wins with seven; he comes into the weekend with a record of 7-1 and a 2.73 ERA.

William Jewell's other two primary weekend starters, Preston Felgate and Billy Kirkpatrick, also have ERAs of under four.

Offensively, the Cardinals are paced by outfielder Luke Lucchetti, who ranks third in the GLVC in hitting with an average of .414.  He leads a productive WJC lineup that has seven players who have driven in at least 20 runs, led by Sam Morman's 36.

The Cardinals are tied for second in the GLVC with 23 home runs, as Jared Patton has hit six and Hunter Brown has five.

Meanwhile, the Miners still rank second in the GLVC in hitting as a team with a .307 batting average and are tied with William Jewell for the top spot in on-base percentage at .384.  Tyler Johnson (Union, Mo./Union) continues to lead the Miners in hitting with a mark of .377, while Trevor Karbowski (Standish, Mich./Sterling Central) is hitting .328 and Adam Richter (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) and Lance Portwood (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Santa Fe) are at .326.

Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney), who homered in the Miners' most recent conference contest, a 6-2 win in the series finale at Truman State Monday, leads S&T with five home runs and 34 runs batted in which is tied for fifth in the GLVC.  Portwood has driven in 28 runs, while Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) has knocked in 23 out of the leadoff spot in the lineup.

Aaron Bedsworth (New Bloomfield, Mo./New Bloomfield) leads the S&T pitching staff with a 2.92 earned run average and is 4-3 on the season with a team-high 41 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings.  Micah Dohlen (Kent, Wash./Kent Lake) and Mack Preston (Shawnee, Kan./Shawnee Mission Northwest) also have four wins apiece among the staff members, while Keith Coulson (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) and reliever Blake Stephens (Chillicothe, Mo./Chillicothe) have three wins each.