ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T used a hot stretch of play to move into second place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division standings at the midway point of the league season – and now begins a second half slate that will include contests with the three other teams it sits with at the top of the GLVC West.

That stretch for the Miners starts Saturday, when they host Quincy in a four-game series at the S&T Baseball Field that will consist of noon doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.  The Hawks come into the series one game behind S&T in the GLVC West at 12-6 in conference play, while S&T, at 13-5 in the GLVC, is one game behind division leader William Jewell – a team that swept a four-game set at Quincy over the weekend to take over the division lead.

Both teams bring an overall record of 18-11 into the weekend series.

The Miners are also coming off a series sweep as they took four at Maryville over Easter weekend and have won 10 of their last 12 contests heading into play this weekend.  The offense has been the big key to the Miners' success in league play, as they currently rank second in the GLVC with a .313 team batting average – Lewis is atop the league at .314 – and are averaging 6.5 runs in their 18 conference contests.

Tyler Johnson (Union, Mo./Union) currently ranks sixth in the GLVC in hitting with a .404 batting average, while Reed Brown (Rogers, Ark./Heritage) – who returned to the everyday lineup at Maryville after missing time with an injury – is 11^th in the league with his .382 average.  Johnson also leads the conference in on-base percentage at .513.

The Miners have four everyday players hitting .321 or better, which includes Trevor Karbowski (Standish, Mich./Sterling Central) (.340) and Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) (.321), while Adam Richter (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) is hitting .365 in his 63 at-bats.  Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) leads the Miners with four home runs and 27 runs batted in, the latter mark good for fifth in the league.

S&T's top starting pitchers, Aaron Bedsworth (New Bloomfield, Mo./New Bloomfield) and Micah Dohlen (Kent, Wash./Kent Lake), have combined for eight wins and bring identical 2.68 earned run averages into the weekend series.  Bedsworth has struck out a team-high 30 hitters in 40 1/3 innings, while Dohlen has held opposing hitters to a .244 batting average in 43 2/3 innings of work.  Brown has recorded seven saves out of the bullpen, which is tied for second in the GLVC.

The Miner pitchers will be contending with two of the GLVC's top hitters this weekend, as Quincy has the top hitter in David Jacob with a .426 average and Kory Wisdom is fourth in the conference with a .421 mark.  Jacob also owns the league's fourth-best slugging percentage mark of .648 – 13 of his 46 hits have been for extra bases including five home runs – while Wisdom is the only other GLVC player besides Johnson with an on-base percentage mark over .500 as his stands at .504.

Jacob's 36 runs batted in are also tops in the GLVC.  The Hawks are hitting .303 as a team, the conference's fourth-leading average heading into the weekend.

On the mound, the Hawks possess a 4.30 earned run average and are paced by starters Graham Spraker (2-1, 2.00 ERA) and Mark Niebruegge (5-1, 2.87 ERA).  Reliever Teddy Rule has converted six saves this season and has an earned run average of 0.87 with 13 strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings on the hill.

Following the Quincy series, the Miners will play the second half of their season series with Drury in Springfield, Mo. – the Panthers are one of six teams in the GLVC West with a record above .500 in league play – then play four games at Truman State and a home series against division leader William Jewell.