ROLLA, Mo. – After playing 13 of their first 14 contests away from home, the Missouri S&T baseball team will finally get to spend a weekend at the friendly confines of the S&T Ballpark as it welcomes the Bulldogs of Truman State to town for week two of Great Lakes Valley Conference play.
The Miners (9-5, 2-1 GLVC) are coming off a series win against William Jewell -- played in Joplin due to field conditions in Liberty -- in which they took two of three from the Cardinals, followed by a win Tuesday afternoon in a non-conference contest with Southwest Baptist by the score of 7-1.
Starting pitcher
Luke Marcheschi (Bloomington, IL/Central Catholic) took a perfect record into game one of the Jewell series and kept it perfect, notching win number four as he went the distance in a contest that was called after seven innings by a score of 11-0. The senior southpaw fanned three Cardinals and scattered five hits during his afternoon on the bump, which was good enough to earn him his second GLVC Pitcher of the Week Award this season. Marcheschi will enter the weekend at 4-0 with 28 innings pitched and has struck out 14 against two walks, while allowing just three earned runs.
Jason Volkmann (Liberty, MO/Liberty), who tied a school record with a five-for-five performance in the series opener, comes into this weekend batting .448 after a red-hot week at the plate, with six extra base hits and 10 RBI to his name.
Matt Gruse (Neenah, WI/Neenah) checks in with a batting average of .415 and a team-leading eight doubles, while
Brady Wildschuetz (Foristell, MO/Francis Howell) and
Matt Knickerbocker (Bayfield, CO/Bayfield) also boast averages over the .300 mark and
Tim Lira (Granger, IN/Penn) has a team leading 12 runs batted in.
Kaleb Reid (Smithville, MO/Smithville) and
Cameron Burk (Nacogdoches, TX/Cushing) have combined to steal eleven bases and been the recipients of sixteen hit by pitches.
The Bulldogs (1-10, 1-2 GLVC) played at Illinois-Springfield last week as the home team, since the series was shifted from Kirksville to the campus of UIS for the turf infield playing surface and notched their first win of 2019 in a back and forth contest in game one of the series by a score of 11-10. The third-ranked Prairie Stars won the last two games of the series by scores of 20-1 and 16-9.
Adam Stolley leads the Truman offense with a .348 batting average with two doubles, a triple, a homerun, and five RBI so far on the season, which is tied for the team lead with Evan Kayser. Mason King, Reid Wilson, Steven Bradbury and Jack Goodwin all have averages over .270 for the Bulldogs, who are batting just .204 as a team.
Rian Markes leads the Bulldog pitching staff in terms of workload, having worked 16 innings across his three starts, striking out 12 against three walk, while Connor McKenna has worked 12 1/3 innings over the course of his three starts and has struck out 13 against four walks. Caleb Buehrle earned the win last week in relief over UIS and has worked nine innings over three appearances. Truman owns a team ERA of 11.78 on the season.
