ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team took three of its four games in its weekend homestand and will now head to the road for a Saturday doubleheader in Great Lakes Valley Conference play before taking on the defending NCAA Division II national champions early next week.

The Miners will take on Illinois Springfield Saturday at noon in Springfield, Ill., prior to a date Tuesday against Rogers State at the S&T Softball Field.  Tuesday's twinbill with the currently eighth-ranked Hillcats will also get underway at noon.

S&T won the first three games of the weekend set at home, shutting out Southwest Baptist in both ends of Sunday's doubleheader and then winning the first game on Monday over Drury – also in shutout fashion – before falling 1-0 in the nightcap to the Panthers.  The three shutouts marked the first time since late in the 2009 season that S&T had shut out an opponent in three straight games and before allowing the run in the seventh inning in the second game on Monday, the Miners had recorded 29 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) threw two of the shutouts, carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning in Sunday's opener against SBU and followed that by tying her career high with 12 strikeouts in a 1-0 win over Drury.  Wooldridge has a 3.30 earned run average on the season as she leads the S&T pitching staff with seven wins and 76 strikeouts in 82 2/3 innings.

Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) also had a shutout in between the two recorded by her teammate and has the top ERA on the staff of 2.17, while Julia Kanoy (Hamilton, Mo./Penney) has struck out 75 hitters in 61 1/3 innings of work.

Wooldridge also leads the Miners at the plate with a .342 average, while Emma Vaughn (Pevely, Mo./Herculaneum) is batting .333 and Elizabeth Viox (Glen Carbon, Ill./Edwardsville) checks into the weekend with a .320 mark.  Shannon Flowers (Katy, Texas/Katy) has a team-high three home runs, while Hannah Antzoulatos (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic Academy) leads the way with 18 runs batted in.

ABOUT ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD: The Prairie Stars enter the week with a 22-15 overall record and is 3-5 in the GLVC prior to a Wednesday doubleheader at Missouri-St. Louis.  UIS has split three straight doubleheaders, including one on Sunday when it bounced back from a run-rule loss to Lewis to beat the Flyers in the second game.

Isabella Wilson leads UIS with a .375 batting average, while Jillian Mathias is batting .343 and Ella Brinkley comes in with a .330 mark.  Wilson also leads the Prairie Stars with 25 runs batted in and is one of eight players with at least 10 runs driven in on the season.  In the circle, Rosie Barletti is 4-2 with a 1.24 earned run average and Reagan Miles leads the staff with seven wins.  The third primary starter for UIS, Taylor Zawacki, leads UIS with 113 strikeouts.

ABOUT ROGERS STATE:  The Hillcats opened the season as the top-ranked team in the nation after winning their first national title last spring, but slipped back to eighth after a weekend where they were swept on back-to-back days by Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern.  Since the two losses to Southern on March 26, the Hillcats (27-6) have won four in a row and will face Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri State prior to their trip to Rolla on Tuesday.

Rogers State is hitting .313 as a team, led by Callie Yellin with a .388 average and Bridgett Morales with a .380 mark.  Morales also has five home runs to lead a team that has belted 34 home runs on the season – just over one per game – and has driven in 27 runs.  Rogers' pitching staff has been paced by Sara Llamas-Howell, who is 13-1 with an earned run average of 1.00 and a staff-high 78 strikeouts in 90 innings of work.  Jade Sanders has nine wins in the circle and has struck out 64 hitters on the year.