ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team will look to lock up its place in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament this weekend when it heads to Kirksville, Mo., to take on Truman State in a four-game series to close the regular season schedule.

The Miners, 18-18 overall and 14-14 in the GLVC, will take on the Bulldogs (6-30, 6-22 GLVC) in a series that will begin with a single game at 3 p.m. on Friday, followed by noon starts on Saturday and Sunday as the teams will play a doubleheader Saturday and a single game to close the series on Sunday.

S&T has a magic number of two to clinch a spot in the tournament, needing a combination of two wins and losses by either Southwest Baptist and Drury – who face one another in a four-game series this weekend.  The Miners are also in contention with Rockhurst for the No. 3 seed in the GLVC Green Division and would get that spot with a sweep this weekend or by winning three of four if the Hawks do not sweep their series at William Jewell.

The Miners moved closer to that playoff spot by winning the final two games of the series against Southwest Baptist after SBU had taken the first two games.  S&T won the second game of Saturday's doubleheader on Dakota Sill's (Lansing, KS/Lansing) walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh, then shut out the Bearcats 10-0 in Sunday's series finale behind two home runs and five runs batted in by Doug Wood (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) and a combined shutout by pitchers Dylan Mollett (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) and David Kephart (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest).

Wood, who had four multiple-hit games last week, has raised his average to .336 on the season and is among several S&T regulars that are hitting over .300 on the year; the Miners have the GLVC's third-best team batting average of .324 through Sunday's action.  Will Hayes (Terre Haute, IN/South Vigo) leads the way with a .384 mark that is just outside the top 10 in the GLVC and ranks third in stolen bases with 17, while Michael Ward (Hazelwood, MO/Hazelwood West) is hitting .379 with a team-high nine home runs and 25 runs batted in.

Ward is fourth in the GLVC in on-base percentage at .538 heading into the weekend and owns a team-best .767 slugging percentage mark.  Sill is hitting .340 on the year, while Andrew Branson (St. James, MO/St. James) is hitting .330 and Brady Voss (Lake St. Louis, MO/Liberty) is at .313 with 16 stolen bases.  Garrett Weiner (Alton, IL/Marquette), who is also batting .313, leads the Miners with 33 runs batted in.

Cade Meier (Dakota, IL/Dakota) leads the Miner pitching staff with a 5.47 earned run average and a 4-2 record, while Mollett is 4-0 on the year with an ERA of 6.75.  Meier also leads the staff with 39 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings, while Rian Markes (Columbia, MO/Father Tolton) has struck out 35 hitters in 44 1/3 innings.  Kephart picked up his third save over the weekend and has a 3.86 ERA, while Bryce Charipar's (Cedar Rapids, IA/Xavier) ERA out of the bullpen stands at 3.18.

After opening its season with 20 straight losses, Truman State has gone 6-10 over its last 16 games and has wins over Southwest Baptist, Drury and Rockhurst among them.  The Bulldogs lost three of four at Rockhurst last weekend, opening the series with a 16-5 win before dropping the final three contests.

Truman has two of the top home run hitters in the GLVC in Kory Carter, who has hit nine homers this season has driven in a team-high 21 runs and Holden Missey, who has homered eight times and has knocked in 20.  Missey leads Truman with a .339 batting average and Carter is hitting .338, while Steven Bradbury has a .345 average in 16 games as the Bulldogs are hitting .251 as a team this year.

Connor McKenna and Zachry Schneider lead the Bulldog pitching staff with a 6.66 ERA in nine starts apiece, with McKenna leading the team with 47 strikeouts in 48 2/3 innings.  Schneider, meanwhile, has three of the four complete games thrown by Bulldog pitcher this season.