ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team will seek to rekindle its winning ways when its return home to the S&T Ballpark – a place where it has enjoyed a great deal of success over the last two seasons – to renew its rivalry this weekend with Quincy University in Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
The Miners and Hawks will play doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday on S&T's home field, where the Miners are 7-1 this season and 29-5 since the start of the 2016 season. They will put that record on the line this weekend against one of two GLVC teams that opened conference play last week with a four-game sweep, as Quincy took all four games from Truman State by a combined score of 39-11.
Saturday's meeting will mark the first between S&T and Quincy since the Miners ended the Hawks' season a year ago with a 9-8 win in Quincy at the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional. The Hawks enter the weekend series with a six-game winning streak and an overall record of 15-8, while the Miners are 10-12 on the year and 1-3 in the GLVC after dropping three of four at Drury.
The Miners scored 20 runs in Sunday's doubleheader split at Drury and have three regulars hitting over .300 as play begins this weekend.
Eli Miller (Shelbyville, IL/Shelbyville) leads the way with a .393 average – putting him just outside the top 10 in the GLVC – and leads the conference with 13 stolen bases. He also ranks among the league leaders in runs scored with 26 and hits with 33.
Adam Richter (Breese, IL/Mater Dei) is hitting .367 on the year and is 10
th in the conference with 23 runs batted in, while
Matt Reschke (Darien, IL/Hinsdale South) is batting .307 and has 16 runs batted in along with
Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles), who is just below the .300 mark at .297 and leads the Miners with two home runs.
Anthony Garza (Belleviille, IL/Belleville East) has a 1-0 record and 3.89 earned run average on the year to lead the starting staff, while
Trent Green (Perryville, MO/Perryville) comes in with a 5.77 ERA and is tied with
Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville) for the staff lead with 22 strikeouts.
Quincy ranks fifth in the GLVC in hitting with a .316 team batting average and has averaged 7.5 runs per game this season, primarily as the result of a league-high 36 home runs.
One-third of those home runs have been hit by Jake Walters, who is second in the conference in that category and in runs batted in with 35 as he owns a league-best .888 slugging percentage. He is among six regulars for the Hawks who are hitting over .300 on the season, a contingent led by Dominic Miles, who is 10
th in the GLVC with a .397 mark.
Chandler Purcell is right behind Miles with a .391 average, while J.C. DeMuri has a .386 average with seven home runs and 29 runs driven in – 14 of which came in the Truman State as he knocked in seven in the series finale with a pair of homers.
On the hill, the Hawks have three hurlers with at least three wins apiece, led by Riley Martin with a 4-1 record and 4.34 earned run average. Graham Spraker has the best ERA on the staff at 2.29, while Hunter Haynes has struck out 35 hitters – second in the GLVC – in 35 2/3 innings. Closer Cole Crawford is second in the conference with five saves.
The Miners and Hawks split the four-game GLVC series last season in Quincy before the Miners won the fifth matchup between the squads at the regional tournament.
