ROLLA, Mo. – For the fourth consecutive season and seventh time in the last eight years, Missouri S&T's baseball team is heading to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament and will get started with the final game on the first day of action Thursday at U.S. Baseball Park in Ozark, Mo.

The Miners, 25-24 on the year and 15-13 in the GLVC this season, will have a big challenge to open the tournament Thursday evening as they face fourth-ranked Illinois Springfield at 7:30 p.m.  Missouri S&T is the fourth seed out of the GLVC West Division, while the Prairie Stars won the GLVC East with a 23-1 conference mark and are 45-5 overall.

It is the second time in three years that the Miners and Prairie Stars are meeting in the first round of the conference tournament, as S&T beat UIS 11-4 when they met in the opening round in 2016.  The teams did play once during the 2018 campaign, a game won by the Prairie Stars 17-4 on April 25.

Missouri S&T ranks sixth in the GLVC in hitting as the tournament begins with a .298 team mark with several regulars over the .300 plateau, led by first baseman Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) with a .366 average.  Lira has a big series as the Miners swept a four-game set from Truman State to qualify for the tournament, which include an eighth inning grand slam to put the Miners into the lead in game one and an RBI single to start the Miner scoring in the second game in a 3-0 shutout win.

Lira is 11^th in the GLVC in hitting as the tournament begins, while Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) is hitting .365 and is one of the Miners' top offensive producers with three home runs and 28 runs batted in.  Conner Forsythe (Farmington, MO/Farmington), S&T's designated hitter, has also hit three home runs on the season and right fielder Lucas Swindle (Weldon Spring, MO/Lutheran-St. Charles) has a team-high 32 RBI.

Meanwhile, shortstop Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) owns the GLVC's fifth-best on-base percentage at .478 and is also tied for fifth in the conference with 21 stolen bases. Burk, who is hitting .345 on the year, has also reached base 39 times either by walk or hit by pitch.

Dan Borek (Greenville, WI/Hortonville) leads the Miner pitching staff with a 5-5 record and 3.46 earned run average, while Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman), who is coming off a complete game, three-hit shutout over Truman, is 3-3 with a 3.71 ERA.  Erger leads the S&T staff with 52 strikeouts after fanning a career-high eight in his start on Friday.

The Prairie Stars, who have suffered only two losses in their last 47 games, bring the GLVC's top offense and pitching staff into the tournament.  UIS has a team batting average of .332, the ninth-best mark in NCAA Division II, while its pitching staff has recorded a 2.69 earned run average that ranks fourth nationally.

Nick Stokowski leads UIS with a .391 average and has 20 home runs and 69 runs batted in on the season, while teammate Michael Rothmund leads the GLVC in the latter two categories with 21 homers and 72 RBI as he is batting .368.  Stokowski, Rothmund and John Sechen are all among the top seven in the conference in hitting as Sechen is hitting .373 on the year.

The Prairie Stars have two additional hitters, Kenny Hansen and Jack Schaaf, also ranked among the top 15 in the league in hitting at .361 and .357, respectively.

Justin Revels has been the Prairie Stars' opening game starter in each series throughout the GLVC schedule and brings a record of 7-1 and a 2.76 ERA into the tournament, while Andrew Dean is 10-0 with a 2.10 ERA. Revels has struck out a GLVC-high 96 hitters in 65 1/3 innings – his 13.2 strikeouts per nine innings is the seventh-best mark in the nation -- while Dean has fanned 70 in 68 2/3 frames.

On Friday, the Miners will face either Quincy or Southern Indiana; they will play at 7:30 p.m. if they are victorious on Thursday or at 12:30 p.m. in an elimination game in the event of a loss.

The Miners have faced both teams during the 2018 season, dropping three of four at Quincy (35-15, 19-9 GLVC) and dropping a 9-8 at Southern Indiana (29-19, 15-9 GLVC) on Feb. 26.  The Hawks and Screaming Eagles rank second and third, respectively, in pitching in the GLVC behind Illinois Springfield, while USI has the second-best team batting average in the conference at .319 with the league's top hitter in Drake McNamara with a .400 average.

The other first round contests feature GLVC West champion Drury going up against Indianapolis, while Bellarmine and Maryville will face off in the other opening round game on Thursday.