ROLLA, Mo. – Fresh off a sweep in its first home series of the season, Missouri S&T will look to continue its winning ways on the diamond this weekend when it hosts Illinois Springfield in a four-game series at the S&T Ballpark.
The teams will play a doubleheader Friday starting at 1 p.m., then face off in a second twinbill Sunday beginning at noon. The series – a non-conference set between the two squads from the Great Lakes Valley Conference -- was originally scheduled to be played with games over three consecutive days, but the weekend weather forecast prompted the change in the schedule.
The Miners swept a four-game set from Wayne State (Neb.) over the weekend to move over the .500 mark for the first time this year, as they will bring a 6-5 record into the series with an Illinois Springfield squad that is 7-3 on the young season. The teams met in a regular season series last March – where S&T won two of the three games in Springfield, Ill. – then the Miners beat the Prairie Stars 11-4 in an opening round contest at the GLVC Tournament.
Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles), who earned the GLVC's "Player of the Week" award this week after going eight-of-16 with six runs batted in during the Wayne State series, leads the Miners with a .417 batting average through the first 11 games of the year. He is one of two Miner hitters over the .400 mark, as third baseman
Adam Richter (Breese, IL/Mater Dei) comes in with a .405 mark.
Richter also leads S&T with 15 runs batted in, while Swindle has driven in 12.
Eli Miller (Shelbyville, IL/Shelbyville), the Miners' third-leading hitter with a .356 average, has stolen a team-high seven bases and already scored 16 times.
S&T got complete game performances on the mound Sunday from
Trent Green (Perryville, MO/Perryville) and
Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic), with the latter coming into the weekend with a 5.40 earned run average. Green, meanwhile, has struck out a staff-high 16 batters in 17 1/3 innings, while
Anthony Garza (Belleviille, IL/Belleville East) has recorded a 5.29 ERA in 17 innings of work.
Illinois Springfield has won seven of its last nine after opening the season with back-to-back losses to Rockhurst and won its last three games on a trip to Georgia last weekend before dropping an 8-7 decision Tuesday night at Lindenwood.
Ethan Howard, who was the GLVC's "Pitcher of the Week" two weeks ago, fired a five-hit shutout with nine strikeouts in the first of the three wins in Georgia, an 11-0 victory over Missouri-St. Louis. Howard has a 2-0 record and has not allowed an earned run in 16 innings this year.
The UIS pitching staff has recorded a 3.83 earned run average this year, with Brayden Jensen checking in with a 2.76 mark.
Second baseman Myles Hann leads the Prairie Stars in hitting with a .444 average, while centerfielder Chris Mathieu is hitting .444 and Austin Muench is at .385. Michael Rothmund is tied for the league lead with six home runs and has driven in 17.
