ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team will close out its 2022 home schedule this weekend with hopes to do enough to land a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, as the Miners will play a pair doubleheaders at the S&T Softball Field on Friday and Sunday afternoon.

The Miners will take on Illinois Springfield Friday in a 2 p.m. doubleheader to open the weekend action -- the games were moved a day earlier due to potential weather issues on Saturday -- then will close out the regular season schedule Sunday when they face Lewis for two games starting at noon.  If S&T find itself among the top eight teams in the GLVC following the weekend, they will continue their season at the conference tournament beginning on May 5 in East Peoria, Ill.

For the Miners to make the top eight, however, they will have to vault over some teams in the standings over the course of the weekend.  S&T comes into play at 21-25 overall and 9-15 in the GLVC, which has it in a three-way tie for 10^th place in the standings but just one game out of the last playoff spot that is currently held by McKendree.

The Miners have three regulars in their lineup batting over .300 for the season, led by Madison Passolano's (Mokena, Ill./Lockport Township) .338 mark.  Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) comes into the weekend hitting .328 and ranks among the team leaders in a handful of offensive categories, including runs scored with 31, triples with a GLVC-leading five and 10 stolen bases.  Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) is also over the .300 mark with a  .310 average on the year.

Ashley Davis (Erie, Ill./Erie), who just just below that threshold at .298, leads the Miners with 14 doubles and Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) heads S&T with six home runs and 35 runs batted in while hitting .295 on the season.

In the circle, Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) has a record of 11-9 and a 3.54 earned run average while striking out a team-high 109 hitters in 132 1/3 innings.  Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) is 9-10 with a 4.19 ERA and 85 strikeouts, while Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney) has fanned 55 hitters in 41 innings of work as both a starter and reliever.

ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: Illinois Springfield has clinched a berth in the GLVC Tournament, but is also looking to climb in the NCAA Division II Midwest region as the Prairie Stars were ranked ninth in the first regional rankings released last week.  UIS comes into this week's action at 31-14 overall and 15-9 in conference play.

The Prairie Stars, who have gone 11-2 in the month of April, are paced at the plate by Jillian Mathis who is the GLVC's fourth-leading hitter with a .417 average.  Danielle Dennis is hitting .392 with five home runs and a team-high 40 runs batted in, while Carly Chovanec is hitting .385 and has also homered five times.  UIS is hitting .318 as a team and has stolen a league-high 144 bases, which ranks fourth in Division II.

Payton Long leads UIS in the circle with a 13-4 record and 2.13 ERA and striking out 111 in 121 2/3 innings, while Reagan Miles has a 3.00 ERA with a 10-4 record.

Lewis is among the teams in the three-way tie with S&T at 9-15 in the GLVC, but returned to the .500 mark overall on Monday at 23-23 after sweeping a doubleheader from Southwest Baptist.  The Flyers had dropped five of their previous six games before getting the two wins Monday, which included a four-hit shutout by Payton Wuske.

Wuske is 9-7 with a 3.70 ERA on the year, while Delaney Garden owns a 10-9 record in the circle with an ERA of 2.89 and 99 strikeouts to lead the staff.

Sara Serena leads the Flyers at the plate with a .336 batting average and has driven in a team-high 37 runs to go along with her four home runs, where she is tied with Evie Calderon for the team lead.  Garden is hitting .333 on the season and Kristin Kavalauskas is also over the .300 mark with a .310 average.  Gabi Nilles leads the Flyers with 15 stolen bases.