ROLLA, Mo. – The Missouri S&T baseball team will once again head back on the road to avoid Mother Nature as they will head south to Jackson, Miss., this weekend to face the Cardinals of Saginaw Valley State.
The series was originally scheduled to take place at the S&T Ballpark, but with winter weather in the forecast this weekend, the series was moved to the Mississippi state capitol. The Miners and Cardinals are slated to play a single game on Saturday at 6 p.m. and a doubleheader Sunday that is scheduled for a 1 p.m. start at Smith-Wills Stadium, a location the Miners played at last season when they faced Mississippi College in a season-opening series.
The Miners (4-2) are coming off a pair of wins Monday in Joplin against Wisconsin-Parkside and 14
th-ranked St. Cloud State.
Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn), who was three-for-eight with five RBI and collected his second home run of the year against the Huskies, leads the Miners in to the weekend with a .381 average and RBI with eight.
Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) checks into the series this weekend at .375 along with catcher
Brady Wildschuetz (Foristell, MO/Francis Howell).
Keegan Baxmeyer (Waterloo, IL/Freeburg) boosted his average to .316 on the year after going four-for-eight Monday with a three-run home run to his credit.
Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) and
Zach Bracken (Berthoud, CO/Berthoud) are also well into the .300s with their averages coming into the weekend.
On the mound,
Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) turned in another strong outing Monday against the Rangers, working into the ninth inning as he allowed just two runs while scattering nine hits and striking out seven.
Dalton Erger (Imperial, MO/Seckman) worked six innings in his win against St. Cloud, allowing three runs on four hits and struck out six.
Stuart Martin (Ajax, ON/Ajax) worked two scoreless innings in relief of Erger, while
Conner Forsythe (Farmington, MO/Farmington) notched save number two on the season against Parkside.
Brenden Garza (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt South) comes into the weekend with a 2.25 ERA after making his Missouri S&T debut against Spring Hill in the final game of that series.
Saginaw Valley State (2-4) comes into this weekend having taken two of three from McKendree University after being swept by Illinois Springfield to start the year. The Cardinals dropped a 5-3 decision to the Bearcats in game one, but took the last two games by scores of 22-3 and 19-7.
Jordan Swiss sports a .542 average with five doubles, 12 RBIs and six stolen bases already to his credit. Derek Clyde sports a .375 average and has seven RBIs and a double, while Martin Mooney comes into the weekend at .333 with two doubles, two triples and four RBI. Joshua Riggs has the lone home run for the Cardinals, as he checks in with a .308 average and nine RBIs.
On the bump, Kyle Henigan leads the SVSU staff with a 0.84 ERA as he has worked 10 2/3 innings in two relief appearances, striking out nine while walking two. John Fantauzzo has worked 5 1/3 innings in three games and allowed just one run, while Jacob Crossan has appeared twice for 7 1/3 innings, striking out seven against one walk. Starter Amani Godfrey is 1-1 on the year and leads the Cardinals in strikeouts with 12 as he has worked 9 2/3 innings thus far.
Be sure to follow along at
www.minerathletics.com for live stats, and for in-game updates, follow @SandTBaseball on Twitter.
