ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team will hit the road for five games in the upcoming week, beginning with a single game Wednesday at McKendree before heading to Quincy for a critical four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series this weekend.
The Miners and McKendree will play at 3 p.m. in Lebanon, Ill., in a make-up of a March 18 postponement before the Miners take on Quincy on Saturday and Sunday in noon doubleheaders. Missouri S&T is currently 16-18 overall and 7-9 in the GLVC, one game in back of William Jewell for fourth place in the GLVC West Division; the top four teams in the division will advance to next month's conference tournament.
Before playing this weekend, the Miners will face a McKendree squad that they swept in a doubleheader on March 15 by scores of 13-6 and 4-2. S&T rapped out a season-high 19 hits in the first game win, then rallied in the nightcap by scoring three times in the top of the seventh to overcome a 2-1 deficit for the victory.
First baseman
Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) leads the Miners with a .407 batting average, while
Conner Forsythe (Farmington, MO/Farmington) is hitting .386 and
Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) is at .376; Burk is currently third in the GLVC in on-base percentage at .512 on the season.
The Miners, who are hitting .311 as a team and are second in that category in the GLVC, have two other regulars over the .300 mark in third baseman
Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) at .361 and
Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) at .331 on the year. Swindle leads the Miners with 24 runs batted in, while Gruse has knocked in 20.
S&T's pitching staff is paced by
Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville), who comes into the week sporting a 3.14 earned run average and 5-4 record. Borek, who has won the last two GLVC pitcher of the week awards, has allowed just three hits in his last 14 innings on the mound.
Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman) has a 4.19 ERA and is second on the staff with 34 strikeouts –
Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) leads the way with 35 – while
Trent Green (Perryville, MO/Perryville) has a 4.66 ERA on the year.
McKendree is 6-26 on the season and has won just once in 11 GLVC contests; the Bearcats have dropped their last six games, including a four-game sweep by sixth-ranked Illinois Springfield over the weekend.
Matt Klosterman leads McKendree at the plate with a .342 average, while Levi Brening is hitting .329 and has team highs in home runs with four and runs batted in with 20.
Quincy is currently tied for second in the GLVC West with Maryville at 11-5 in conference play and is 23-11 overall after taking three of four over Truman State last weekend. While the Miners have the reigning pitcher of the week in the GLVC, the Hawks' Cody Birdsong landed the GLVC's hitter of the week award following a week in which he went 14-of-22 (.636) at the plate with four home runs.
Birdsong is hitting a team-high .387 on the season with seven home runs and 31 runs batted in, while Chandler Purcell is hitting .345. The Hawks have two other regulars over the .300 mark in Troy Wehde at .331 with seven homers and a team-high 33 runs driven in and Brynn Martinez, who is batting .328 and leads Quincy with 15 stolen bases.
The Hawks rank third in the GLVC with 40 home runs, but the Hawk pitching staff is second in the league with a 3.75 earned run average. Nick Stroud is 5-3 with a 2.57 ERA and has fanned 63 hitters in 42 innings of work, while Jimmy McDonald and Aaron Stone both sport a 3.92 ERA. Cole Crawford has been solid out of the bullpen for the Hawks with eight saves and 22 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings of work.
