ROLLA, Mo. – With their spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament already secured – but with bigger goals still within reach – Missouri S&T will close its regular season schedule this weekend when it heads to St. Louis for a four-game series against Maryville University.
The Miners come into the Maryville series sporting a season-high seven-game winning streak, which included a four-game sweep last weekend over Missouri-St. Louis in a series that was played in Warrensburg, Mo., due to the excessive rainfall in the region last week.
As a result of that sweep, the 25-18 Miners – who broke into the top 10 this week in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional rankings -- find themselves a game and a half in back of GLVC West Division leader Quincy and one game behind Drury with four games remaining on the schedule. Missouri S&T is 15-9 in GLVC play and will take on a Maryville team that is still in the hunt for the division's final playoff spot, despite holding a 9-15 mark in league action.
The Saints, 22-24 overall on the season, come into the weekend hitting .293 as a team but have the third-best on-base percentage in the GLVC at .396. Outfielder Daniel Covert has the league's seventh-best mark in that category at .446, while fellow outfielder Mitch Carriger is 10
th with a .450 on-base percentage and is second in the conference in walks with 32 behind teammate Zack Ruckman, who has drawn 38.
Connor Markell leads Maryville with a .346 average on the season, while Covert is hitting .333 and Cody Klotz checks in with a .325 mark. Carriger, who is batting .323 on the season, is the Saints' top power source with 11 home runs and 47 runs batted in, both of which rank among the top five in the league.
AJ Dean leads the Maryville pitching staff with a 5-2 record and 3.22 earned run average in a team-high 58 2/3 innings of work, while Louis Niemerg owns a 4.72 ERA to go with his 3-4 mark on the hill. Niemerg leads the staff with 36 strikeouts, while relievers Alec Harris and Justin Laffluer are both striking out more than one batter per inning.
In addition to putting itself into a position to repeat as GLVC West Division champions, Missouri S&T also entered the regional rankings Wednesday at No. 10 after being unranked on last week's regional list – which came after going 6-0 in the most recent evaluation period.
S&T is led on the offensive side by third baseman
Adam Richter (Breese, IL/Mater Dei), the reigning GLVC player of the week who enters the series hitting .380 on the year with a team-high 41 runs batted in.
Eli Miller (Shelbyville, IL/Shelbyville), who is at .373 on the season, continues to lead the conference in stolen bases with 20 and is second with five triples; the Miners as a team have a league-high 26 this year which currently ranks second in NCAA Division II.
Kaleb Reid (Smithville, MO/Smithville) has raised his average to .340 on the season as the Miners now have five regulars hitting better than .300, including
Zach Bracken (Berthoud, CO/Berthoud) at .336 and
Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) at .328.
Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) is just below that mark at .299, but leads the Miners with four home runs and has driven in 34 on the year.
The Miners have a pair of five-game winners on the mound in
Matt Lamb (Doniphan, NE/Grand Island) and
Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville) – Lamb owns a 4.11 ERA on the year – while
Anthony Garza (Belleviille, IL/Belleville East), who has a 4.62 earned run average, has four wins along with
Trent Green (Perryville, MO/Perryville), the staff leader in strikeouts with 45 in 66 innings of work. Garza leads the Miners with three complete games.
NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Rankings (May 3, 2017)
1. Northwood (Mich), 33-11
2. Wayne State (Mich.), 27-13
3. Bellarmine (Ky.), 31-15
4. Southern Indiana, 27-15
5. Saint Joseph's (Ind.), 30-14
6. Quincy (Ill.), 27-17
7. Drury (Mo.), 30-15
8. Walsh (Ohio), 28-15
9. Grand Valley State (Mich.), 28-18
10. Missouri S&T, 24-18
(All records are for Division II games only)
