ROLLA, Mo. – The softball season for Missouri S&T has reached the final stages and a busy – and challenging – stretch run gets underway Friday when the Miners play host to Missouri-St. Louis in a Great Lakes Valley Conference doubleheader at the S&T Softball Field.

Friday's twinbill will get underway at 1 p.m., then the Miners will be idle until Tuesday when they will play a rescheduled non-conference doubleheader against defending national champion Rogers State at 2 p.m. on their home field.  The Rogers State games were originally scheduled for this past  Tuesday, but were moved to allow for the Hillcats to fulfill scheduling needs in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.

S&T split a doubleheader last Saturday at Illinois Springfield to stay above .500 mark in GLVC play at 8-6; the Miners are 16-18 overall heading into Friday's contests.   The Miners have five GLVC doubleheaders remaining on their schedule, with four of them being against teams among the top five in the conference standings.  S&T also has a home non-conference doubleheader with Missouri Western during the final week of April.

Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) continues to lead the Miners in hitting with a .337 batting average and also has a 7-9 record in the circle with a 3.47 earned run average and a team-high 82 strikeouts in 88 2/3 innings.  The Miners have three additional hitters over the .300 mark at the plate in Emma Vaughn (Pevely, Mo./Herculaneum) at .325, Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) at .324 and Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) with a .309 average.

Antzoulatos leads the Miners with 20 runs batted in, while Viox has a team-high seven stolen bases and Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) has three home runs.

Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton), who has won two of her last three starts and allowed only three runs in those outings, is 4-3 with a 2.15 ERA and has struck out 48 hitters, while Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney) has fanned 75 hitters in 61 1/3 innings of work.

ABOUT MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS: The Tritons come into Friday's matchup at 23-15 overall and is 9-5 in the GLVC.  UMSL was one of the conference with a stretch of wins in 13 of 14 games, but was swept last weekend by Illinois Springfield and Lewis to fall back to fifth in the GLVC standings.

Irene Travis ranks third in the GLVC in hitting with a .403 average and has driven 30 runs on the season, second to the 34 knocked in by McKenzie Lamos.  Lamos is hitting .331 on the year and leads the Tritons with seven home runs, while Corrine Daley is hitting .328 with three homers.  In the circle, UMSL has used five different starting pitchers this season, with Jenna Towle leading the staff with nine wins. Ashley Borowitz is 8-5 and has struck out 78 hitters in 82 2/3 innings.\
 
ABOUT ROGERS STATE:  The eighth-ranked Hillcats come into a weekend where they will play Newman and fourth-ranked Central Oklahoma before its trip to Rolla Tuesday and are currently on an eight-game winning streak.  Rogers State improved to 31-6 overall with sweeps over Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri State last weekend.
 
Rogers State is hitting .318 as a team, led by Callie Yellin with a .397 average and Bridgett Morales with a .375 mark.  Morales also has five home runs to lead a team that has belted 37 home runs on the season – a rate of one per game – and has driven in a team-high 29 runs.  Rogers' pitching staff has been paced by Sara Llamas-Howell, who is 15-1 with an earned run average of 0.89 and a staff-high 87 strikeouts in 101 innings of work.  Jade Sanders has 11 wins in the circle and has struck out 76 hitters on the year.