ROLLA, Mo. – Coming off its best season and deepest post-season run in school history, Missouri S&T's baseball team will look to continue to build on that success as it gets ready to begin its 2017 schedule this weekend.

The Miners went 39-19 a year ago, won the Great Lakes Valley Conference West Division championship and reached the championship game of the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional before seeing the year end with a loss to Southern Indiana.

The team that will take the field for the first time Friday at Emporia State – where the Miners will play a three-game series that will run through Sunday – will have a bit of a different look due to the graduation of 12 seniors from that 2016 squad, a group that included three all-conference performers.

However, the Miners have three returning all-conference players to build around for the upcoming season, beginning with outfielder Eli Miller (Shelbyville, IL/Shelbyville), who earned all-region honors after becoming the 10th player in school history to hit .400 for a season that was the second-best mark in the conference.

Miller, a first-team All-GLVC selection last spring, also led the league with a school record eight triples and stole a team-high 24 bases that also tied the S&T single-season mark.  He is expected to head an outfield corps that includes veteran Matt Reschke (Darien, IL/Hinsdale South), who hit .283 with a pair of home runs last season and some newcomers to the mix, redshirt freshmen Jason Volkmann (Liberty, MO/Liberty) and Zach Wiegand (Coppell, TX/Parish Episcopal) and transfer Kaleb Reid (Smithville, MO/Smithville).

Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) could also be a part of the outfield mix, but he is also expected to see a good deal of playing time either behind the plate along with returning All-GLVC catcher Justus Nelson (Plymouth, MN/Robbinsdale Armstrong) or as the team's designated hitter.  Swindle hit .306 in a similar role a year ago.

Nelson, meanwhile, hit .290 at the plate and helped guide S&T's pitching staff to a 4.21 earned run average for the season, as opposing hitters batted just .284 for the season against the Miner hurlers.  Nelson also threw out 17 runners trying to steal a year ago.

Brett Yasui (Mililani, HI/Kamahameha), who has past starting experience behind the plate, will provide depth at that spot.

S&T's third returning all-conference performer is starting pitcher Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville), who recorded a 9-5 record – including the first of the four straight wins posted by the Miners at the regional tournament – and a 4.61 earned run average in 2016.  In 84 innings of work, Borek struck out 56 and held opponents to a .273 average.

He will be joined in the starting rotation by Trent Green (Perryville, MO/Perryville), who picked up the last of S&T's four regional wins with a complete game effort in the victory over Ashland.  Green moved into the starting rotation in mid-April and finished with a 3-0 record and a 3.78 earned run average.

Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) will join the starting rotation after throwing out of the bullpen last season, where he led the Miners with 23 appearances, while the fourth starter at the beginning of the year will be newcomer Anthony Garza (Belleviille, IL/Belleville East), a transfer from Southwestern Illinois College who threw 73 2/3 innings last season.

The bullpen has two returners who threw a good number of innings as freshmen in righthander Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman) and lefthander Bryan Nolan (Ballwin, MO/St. Louis University HS), but the remainder of the pen will rely heavily on younger arms.  Freshmen Blaine Dunbar (West Plains, MO/West Plains) and Matt Lamb (Doniphan, NE/Grand Island) figure to fill the bridge innings along with redshirt freshman Stuart Martin (Ajax, ON/Ajax).

As far as the Miner infield goes, S&T returns one regular starter in Adam Richter (Breese, IL/Mater Dei) at third base and another who started a majority of the season in Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing).  Richter hit .331 a year ago and was steady on the defensive side, while Burk started in 27 games as a middle infielder – primarily at second base – and enters the year as the probable starter at shortstop.

Freshman Jack DeGarmo (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) is expected to see playing time as a middle infielder this season along with redshirt freshman Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield), while returner Nathan Volkmann (Liberty, MO/Liberty) will look to earn time at third base.

At the other corner infield spot, newcomer Zach Bracken (Berthoud, CO/Berthoud), who played last season at Lamar Community College, has the upper hand on the starting role that has been held for the last four seasons by Lance Portwood (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Santa Fe), while redshirt freshman Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) and Reschke could also land playing time there as well.

Following this weekend's series at Emporia State and a weekend set at St. Edward's, the Miners – who were picked to finish third in the GLVC West Division this spring -- will open their home schedule March 4 when they host Wayne State (Neb.) in a four-game series.

Emporia State, S&T's opponent this weekend, is off to a 5-1 start after sweeping a three-game series over MSU Denver last weekend.  The Hornets have hit 12 home runs in their first six games – four by Mason Brown – and are averaging more than 12 runs per game thus far.