ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T will take to the home turf for the final time in the 2018 season this week, beginning with a single game Wednesday against fifth-ranked Illinois Springfield and their last home series in Great Lakes Valley Conference play this weekend against Missouri-St. Louis.

The Miners and UIS – who owns the longest active winning in NCAA baseball of 28 games following its 9-4 win at UMSL on Tuesday – will face off at 3 p.m. Wednesday at the S&T Ballpark.  Following that contest, the Miners and Tritons will meet in a critical Great Lakes Valley Conference series with noon doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.

S&T will face a Prairie Star squad that is one of the top teams in NCAA Division Ii in terms of offense and pitching, as UIS (36-4) has the eighth-best batting average in the division of .330 and the third-best earned run average at 2.61 – both marks that lead the GLVC.

Designated hitter Nick Stokowski is among the conference leaders in all three triple crown categories, holding a .410 batting average with 15 home runs and 53 runs batted in.  The Prairie Stars have five regulars hitting .347 or better, as Jack Schaff is hitting .362, John Sechen is batting .361, Cole Taylor is at .354  and Michael Rothmund is hitting .347.

Rothmund has 14 homers and 47 RBI, while Taylor has homered 10 times and has driven in 48 for a team that leads the GLVC in runs scored, home runs and slugging percentage; its .574 mark is the second-best in Division II.

UIS' pitching staff has held its opponents to a .198 team batting average this season and have allowed 6.2 hits per nine innings, the second-fewest in the nation behind Augustana, a team S&T faced earlier this season.

The Miners (18-21, 8-12 GLVC) are one of five teams in the GLVC with a team batting over the .300 mark as they are batting .304 as a team coming into this week's action.  First baseman Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) continues to lead S&T at the plate with a .394 average, while Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) is hitting .368 and Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) is at .358 and has the fourth-best on-base percentage in the GLVC of .500.

Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) is hitting .316 on the year and leads the Miners with 27 runs batted in, while Gruse has knocked in 26 and has a team-high three home runs.

On the mound, Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville) comes in with a 5-4 record and 3.43 earned run average in 57 2/3 innings, while Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman) has a 4.08 ERA and leads the staff with 37 strikeouts.

S&T enters the weekend series with UMSL trailing the Tritons (18-23, 9-11 GLVC) by one game in the West Division standings and is two games in back of William Jewell, who sits in fourth place and currently holds the final playoff spot from the division.  All three teams have eight GLVC games remaining on their schedules.

UMSL is paced at the plate by Jake Morsch with a .339 average, while Cooper Vinz is hitting .321 on the year and Tom DeCero is hitting .299.  DeCero is also one of the top producers with four home runs and 19 runs batted in, while Derrick Freeman has driven in a team-high 24 runs and has homered three times.

Jim Brandt lead the Triton pitching staff with a 4-2 record in seven starts and a 4.17 ERA, while Kevin Smith has a 4.20 earned run average and ranks 14^th in the GLVC with 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings.  UMSL has another pitcher, Michael Houchin, who is sixth in that category with 10.8 strikeouts per game.

As part of the final weekend of home action for the Miners, the six Missouri S&T's seniors will be honored prior to Saturday's first game.