Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Softball squad opens its 2017 season this coming Saturday traveling to Searcy, Ark., to take on the Harding Lady Bisons in a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. The Lady Miners will play their first 18 games of the season away from home and have their home opener scheduled for Wed., March 15 with a doubleheader against Lindenwood beginning at 2 p.m.
S&T returns 13 players off of last year's team that went 16-35 and returns its top two hitters from last season.
Monica Weiss (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette ), a junior from St. Louis, Mo., led the Lady Miners with a .344 batting average and had 14 stolen bases.
Savannah Fedorchak (Oakville, Mo./Oakville), a senior from Oakville, Mo., hit .333 last season, had a team-leading slugging percentage of .442 and led the team with 30 RBIs. Fedorchak was tied for the team lead in home runs with two along with senior
Kelly Heckemeyer (St. Elizabeth, Mo./St. Elizabeth) and sophomore
Hannah Franceschini (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central).
In the circle, S&T returns three hurlers from last season led by junior
Kati Viets (Sweet Springs, Mo./Sweet Springs) who was 8-17 with a 3.54 earned run average last season and led the team with 158 innings pitched. She threw 19 complete games and had a shutout. Senior
Ashley Hill (Centralia, Mo./Centralia) and sophomore
Courtney Jackson (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) also return and will be joined in the circle by freshman
Avery English (Carterville, Ill./Carterville).
Last season the two squads met in Rolla in the Lady Miners home opener splitting the doubleheader. The Lady Bisons won the opener 2-0 and S&T won the second game 6-3 behind three RBIs each from Franceschini and Fedorchak.
The Lady Miners were picked to finish 15th in the GLVC Preseason coaches Poll which was announced on Tuesday by the league office.
Coaches Poll
Harding returns 10 letterwinners from last year's ball club that went 37-24 and finished as the runner-up in the Great American Conference Tournament. The Lady Bisons were picked to finish third in the GAC coaches preseason poll.
Harding returns its top two hitters from last season. Shortstop Alexus Lawellin led the Lady Bisons with a .408 batting average and a .505 on base percentage. Peyton Mills was the GAC Freshman of the Year hitting .362 with 11 home runs and had a team-leading .612 slugging percentage.
In the circle, Harding returns its top hurler in Hannah Johnson. Johnson went 21-10 with an ERA of 2.58 last season. She threw 201 innings, had 20 complete games and four shutouts.
