ROLLA, Mo. - The Missouri S&T baseball team returns to the Ballpark at S&T to begin their final homestand of the season, starting with five games this week which opens with a rematch against Pittsburg State at 2 p.m. on Tuesday. The Miners will then return to Great Lakes Valley Conference play with a four-game series against McKendree, beginning on Friday with a single game at 2 p.m. followed by a doubleheader Saturday and the finale on Sunday with noon starts on the last two days. 

The Miners (18-15, 9-11 GLVC) return to action Tuesday after a 10-day break in the schedule and will bring a seven-game winning streak into the matchup with the Gorillas. S&T's last action was a four-game series sweep over Southwest Baptist as S&T outscored the Bearcats 59-15 and scored double figures in each of the last three decisions of the series.

Entering this week's matchups, the Miners are led in batting by Cole Hampton (Edwardsville, IL/Edwardsville) with a .344 batting average after he recorded eight hits and 10 runs batted in in the SBU series. He has driven in 32 runs on the year, which is second on the team to Doug Wood's (Liberty, MO/Liberty North) 41, after Wood drove in 11 runs in that series and earned GLVC Player of the Week honors. The senior shortstop went nine-of-14 in the series with three home runs to increase his team-leading total to eight and also moved his batting average over the .300 mark on the season to .302.  

Chase Burgess (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley West) is second with a .321 batting average as he leads the team with 36 hits and 10 doubles, while sharing the lead in stolen bases with Dakota Sill (Lansing, KS/Lansing) with 18 on the season. 

On the mound, Dylan Mollett (St. Louis, MO/Oakville) leads the pitching rotation with 37.1 innings pitched as he looks to build on an outing of seven shutout innings and seven strikeouts while allowing just three hits in game one against SBU. Mollett comes into the weekend with a 6.27 earned run average.

Ethan Morrow (Lenexa, KS/Shawnee Mission West) earned his second win of the season in the 13-5 victory over SBU where he pitched 5.2 innings and struck out five batters. On the season, Morrow has pitched 36 innings and leads the staff with 37 strikeouts while posting a 5.75 ERA. 

ABOUT PITTSBURG STATE:
The Gorillas (28-13) enter the game coming off a weekend series defeat at the hands of Central Missouri, as Pitt State took game one by the score of 6-5 before dropping the final two decisions of the series.

The Gorillas are led in batting by Nixon Brannan as he is batting .444 while leading the team with 68 hits, 19 doubles and 62 runs batted in, while Austin Warkins is second with a .386 batting average. On the mound, Pitt State is led by Zac Shoemaker as he enters this week as the top pitcher in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association with a 2.84 ERA in 57 innings pitched with 84 strikeouts. 

Another top arm for the Gorillas is Ben Des Rosiers as he has made 11 starts and striking out 59 batters while posting a 4.58 ERA. 

ABOUT MCKENDREE:
The Bearcats (14-25, 7-17 GLVC) enter the series coming off a sweep at the hands of GLVC leader Quincy over the weekend as McKendree was outscored 48-17 in the four decisions. The Bearcats have lost their last eight GLVC contests, all to the top two teams in the conference standings.

McKendree is led in batting by Joey Kossina with a .397 batting average, as he leads the team with 46 hits while only striking out three times on the season. Katom Parnell has a .344 batting average as he leads the Bearcats with 14 doubles and 76 total bases.  

On the mound, Owen Gross leads the Bearcats pitching with 48 innings pitched and has allowed 70 hits with 44 strikeouts; he has an earned run average of 9.00. Another starting pitcher for McKendree is Ryan Drayer as he has made 10 starts and struck out 35 batters while recording a 9.93 ERA.