ROLLA, Mo. – Heading into its final weekend road series in Great Lakes Valley Conference play, Missouri S&T finds itself ranked seventh in the first NCAA Division II Midwest regional rankings that were released Wednesday.
The Miners are one of six GLVC teams among the top 10 in the region in the initial rankings this season, a list headed by GLVC West Division leader Quincy. Indianapolis is ranked second, followed by Grand Valley State and Ashland from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
GLVC member Southern Indiana is fifth and Hillsdale is sixth in the two spots immediately ahead of S&T, while Missouri-St. Louis – the Miners' opponent this weekend – is ranked eighth. Lewis and Kentucky Wesleyan hold the final two spots on this week's list.
This weekend, the Miners will look to solidify its hold on a spot among the top four in the GLVC's West Division – which would guarantee them a spot in the conference tournament that begins May 12 – when it faces UMSL in a four-game set in St. Louis.
The Miners, 27-14 overall and 12-8 in the GLVC, and Tritons will play a 1 p.m. doubleheader Friday and a noon twinbill Saturday at the UMSL Baseball Field. The series was moved ahead a day due to potential weather issues in the region this weekend.
S&T split a four-game series at William Jewell over the weekend, a series in which every game was won by the team that trailed at some point in the contest. The Miners had big sixth innings in both of their victories, scoring five runs in the first game of the doubleheader on both Saturday and Sunday.
Eli Miller (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville) continues to rank among the league leaders in hitting with his .423 batting average and on Sunday, became the seventh player in school history – and second this year – to tie the S&T single game record with two triples. Miller has driven in 30 runs on the year, second to the 36 knocked in by
Nick Ulrich (St. Louis, Mo./Vianney) and is second in the GLVC with 17 stolen bases.
Ulrich also leads the Miners with five home runs on the season and is also among the conference leaders with 13 doubles.
Tyler Bodenstab (Independence, Mo./Truman) comes into the UMSL series batting .355 on the year and has scored 44 times this season, while
Justus Nelson (Plymouth, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong) is at .330 and Colin Zurweller is at .313 on the season. The Miners are hitting .310 as a team, the third-best mark in the GLVC.
S&T is also fourth on the mound – one spot behind UMSL – with a 4.17 team earned run average; the Tritons come in at 4.06. The Miners have three seven-game winners in a season for the first time in school history in
Aaron Bedsworth (New Bloomfield, Mo./New Bloomfield), who owns a 2.54 earned run average,
Dan Borek (Greenville, Wis./Hortonville) and
Keith Coulson (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central). Bedsworth has the 10
th-best ERA in the GLVC and ranks seventh in the league with 54 strikeouts in 63 2/3 innings.
UMSL started the 2016 season with wins in 20 of its first 27 games, but has won just four of its last 13 contests and is now scrambling to make its way into the GLVC Tournament. The Tritons enter the weekend sitting three games out of the fourth place spot in the division standings at 7-13 and is 24-16 overall.
Jake Renfrow and Kurt McGuire head the Triton pitching staff, as Renfrow owns a 4-3 record and a 2.21 earned run average in 53 innings, while McGuire has a 2.34 ERA and a 7-1 record as he has won four of his five conference starts; the one loss was a 1-0 setback against William Jewell on April 2.
The Tritons also have one of the league's top relief pitchers in Austin Simokaitis, who has a 2.04 ERA and a league-high 13 saves.
Justin Busekrus leads the Tritons with a .364 batting average in a balanced attack, with Tanner Hudson checking in a .311 and JonMichael Weaver hitting .305 on the year. UMSL has six players who have driven in at least 26 runs, led by Hudson's 31 runs batted in.
NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Rankings (April 27, 2016)
1. Quincy (28-10)
2. Indianapolis (28-12)
3. Grand Valley State (24-12-1)
4. Ashland (25-14)
5. Southern Indiana (25-15)
6. Hillsdale (26-14)
7. Missouri S&T (27-14)
8. Missouri-St. Louis (24-16)
9. Lewis (22-15)
10. Kentucky Wesleyan (29-12)
