ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T will open its final homestand of the 2017 season this week, a nine-game run that will begin Tuesday afternoon when the Miners host Fontbonne in a single non-conference tilt at the S&T Ballpark.
The Miners and Griffins will play a nine-inning contest at 2 p.m., before the Miners play their last two home series in Great Lakes Valley Conference play, starting with this weekend's four-game series with William Jewell on Sunday and Monday; the games were moved ahead one day due to the weather forecast in the upcoming days. Both doubleheaders are scheduled to begin at noon.
S&T split a four-game series at Truman State over the weekend, winning both ends of Saturday's doubleheader after dropping two on Friday to the Bulldogs.
Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) threw a six-hit, complete game shutout – the first of his career – in game one before the Miners followed up the 8-0 win with a 4-3 victory in game two to return to the .500 mark at 17-17 overall and 8-8 in conference play.
Eli Miller (Shelbyville, IL/Shelbyville) continues to lead the Miners in hitting with a .384 average and is atop the GLVC with 18 stolen bases. Miller also ranks sixth in the conference in on-base percentage at .469 and is second in the league with five triples.
Adam Richter (Breese, IL/Mater Dei) is hitting .352 on the year as the week begins and leads the Miners with 32 runs batted in while reaching base 42 percent of the time, while
Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) is hitting .305 with a team-high four home runs and
Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) is hitting .304.
The Miners have four pitchers with three wins apiece, while
Anthony Garza (Belleviille, IL/Belleville East) has the best earned run average among the starters at 4.59 on the season.
Trent Green (Perryville, MO/Perryville), one of the three-game winners, has a 5.40 ERA and a staff-high 33 strikeouts.
Fontbonne, a member of the NCAA Division III St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, is 11-17 on the year and is coming off its best offensive performance of the season in a 20-12 win Saturday over Westminster. The Griffins banged out a season-high 27 hits in the contest and have reached double figures in hits in eight straight games and in 13 of their last 15.
Jonathan Hoevelmann leads the Griffins with a .412 average, while Patrick Shuff is batting .411 and Ethan Boyer is at .405 on the year. Fontbonne is hitting .345 as a team, one of the top marks in NCAA Division III, but has a team earned run average of 6.99.
William Jewell, who will also step outside of GLVC play Wednesday when it plays at Newman, is in the midst of the wide open race for the available playoff spots in the GLVC West Division as it is 9-7 in league play and 16-17 overall. The Cardinals currently sit in third place in the division standings – S&T is one game behind Jewell in fourth – following a four-game series split with Maryville.
Drew Standifer leads the Cardinals with a .387 average, while Garrett McKinzie and Dylan Christie are both hitting .328 on the year. McKinzie leads the team with eight home runs and 28 runs batted in, while in last year's series between S&T and Jewell in Liberty, Mo., Christie belted six homers and was nine-of-14 at the plate.
Brendan Beatty leads the Cardinal pitching staff in wins with a 4-5 record and a 4.66 earned run average, while Zach Hutcherson owns a 3.72 ERA on the year. Meanwhile, Vijay Patel is among the conference leaders with 53 strikeouts and is fanning a league-best average of 11.6 hitters per nine innings.
Following the weekend series with William Jewell, the Miners will close their home schedule with a four-game series against Missouri-St. Louis on April 29 and 30.
