ROLLA, Mo. – Off to its best start in school history, Missouri S&T's baseball team hits the road for the first time in the 2016 season as it will open nearly a month-long stretch away from home with a three-game weekend series at McKendree University.
The Miners and Bearcats will play a doubleheader beginning at noon Saturday in Lebanon, Ill., then will face off in a single game Sunday at noon; the games this weekend will be non-conference, in-region contests. It will be the start of a stretch where S&T will play 13 consecutive games away from home, including four neutral site games at the Midwest Regional Crossover later this month before hosting Drury March 25.
S&T swept a four-game series from Minnesota-Crookston over the past weekend to remain undefeated, outscoring the Golden Eagles 41-17 in the four contests. The Miners have averaged 8.4 runs per game over their first eight games of the season and rank high in NCAA Division II in both on-base percentage at .459, which ranks 11
th and batting average, where S&T is 13
th nationally at .357.
Shortstop
Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) leads four Miners hitting .400 or better in the early going with a .483 mark and is tied for the team lead in runs batted in with nine along with
Eli Miller (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville), who is hitting .476 after going 8-of-13 in the UMC series.
Adam Richter (Breese, Ill./Mater Dei) is hitting .412 on the year and
Tyler Johnson (Union, Mo./Union) is at .407.
Just outside of that quartet is
Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman), who is hitting .385 with four stolen bases and leads the Great Lakes Valley Conference with three triples.
S&T's pitchers to date have recorded a 3.66 earned run average and are striking out an average of 10.5 batters per nine innings with 75 in 64 innings.
Aaron Bedsworth (New Bloomfield, Mo./New Bloomfield), who has 17 of those strikeouts, has a 2-0 record and a 2.92 ERA, while
Dan Borek (Greenville, Wis./Hortonville) has two wins.
Keith Coulson (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) owns the best ERA among those who have started games at 1.50.
McKendree comes into the weekend looking to win for the first time this year, as the Bearcats are 0-7 after losing three at Missouri Southern and four at Carson-Newman to begin the campaign – two teams with a combined record of 19-6 to date.
Connor Davault leads the Bearcats with a .444 average at the plate, while Keith Rogers is hitting .389 and Colton Calhoun is at .350 with two home runs. Grant Anderson has also homered twice for McKendree, who has hit five home runs as a team but has allowed 15 over its first seven outings.
Rogers also has the Bearcats' best ERA on the mound at 4.09 in 11 innings of work, while reliever Josh Tonozzi has a 2.25 ERA in four appearances.
