ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team will play its final non-conference contests before the Great Lakes Valley Conference season begins as it hosts a pair of doubleheaders against teams from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association this weekend at the Missouri S&T Softball Field.

The Lady Miners, 7-7 on the season, will host Southwest Baptist Saturday in a 1 p.m. doubleheader, then will face off with Central Missouri on Sunday in a pair of games starting at noon.  The UCM games were added to the schedule after the Lady Miners had some weather postponements earlier this season.

S&T won its opening game last weekend at the Lewis Dome Invitational when it beat Findlay 6-2, but lost the last four games of the weekend, including a 1-0 loss to 15^th-ranked Wayne State (Mich.) to close the road trip.  This weekend games will be the last for S&T prior to the start of the GLVC slate on March 10 at Bellarmine.

Monica Weiss (St. Louis, Mo./Marquette) leads the Lady Miners at the plate with a .548 average, which ranks ninth in the GLVC and she also has a league-high 13 stolen bases.  Courtney Jackson (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) is hitting .417 on the season, while Carley Hamman checks in with a .348 mark at the plate.

The Lady Miners have two others who are over the .300 mark in hitting, as Ashley Davis (Erie, Ill./Erie) is batting .333 and Gretchen Egly (Joliet, Ill./Plainfield Central) is hitting .326.  Egly has been a top offensive producer for S&T early in the year with a team-high 16 runs batted in and two home runs, which has her tied for the team lead with Olivia Young (Milstadt, Ill./Belleville Township).

Avery English (Carterville, Ill./Carterville) is 6-4 in the circle with a 2.98 earned run average and 38 strikeouts in 61 innings, while Kati Viets (Sweet Springs, Mo./Sweet Springs) has a 4.06 ERA to go along with her 1-2 record.

Southwest Baptist is 3-10 on the year and will play a doubleheader at William Jewell Friday before playing at S&T on Saturday.  The Bearcats are paced offensively by Jaidy Mawhinney with a .320 average and Megan Schellert at .316 on the year.  Lauren Strobel and Payton Wildeman have two home runs apiece and Wildeman has a team-high seven runs batted in, but SBU is hitting just .220 as a team heading into the weekend.

Claire Miller has done the bulk of the pitching for the Bearcats and has fanned 55 hitters in 44 2/3 innings with a 3.92 earned run average.

Sunday's opponent, Central Missouri, is 5-9 on the year and are led at the plate by Alexis Koop with a .333 average.  Lauryn Deer is the only other UCM player over the .300 mark at .310, while Kaitlyn Markin – who has the Jennies' only home run this season – and Courtni Smith have seven runs driven in apiece.  Sarah Brown has a 3.91 earned run average in 34 innings in the circle to lead the Jennies' pitching staff. 

UCM will also face William Jewell in a doubleheader on the day prior to taking on the Lady Miners.