ROLLA, Mo. – The top two teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference standings await Missouri S&T's softball team as it prepares to embark on its final regular season road trip in GLVC play during the 2024 campaign this weekend, as the Miners will face fifth-ranked Indianapolis and Lewis on their two stops.

The Miners took three of their four games over the past weekend to improve to 19-21 overall and 10-6 in the GLVC heading into Saturday's noon (Eastern time) doubleheader with UIndy.  The Miners have won 10 of their last 13 contests overall.

After losing the opening game of Sunday's doubleheader with McKendree, S&T rebounded with a 3-1 win in the nightcap behind a career-high 13 strikeouts by Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) and a three-run homer by Sydney Anderson (Elkhart, IA/North Polk).  Rowland improved to 8-6 in the circle on the season and dropped her earned run average to 2.74, while surpassing the 100-strikeout mark for the season in the process.

She comes into the weekend with 107 strikeouts in 109 2/3 innings, second to Bryn Wooldridge's (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) 123 in 108 innings of work.  Wooldridge owns a 3.95 earned run average and is also among the top hitters for the Miners entering the weekend with a .370 batting average and 22 runs batted in.

Anderson leads S&T with a .390 average which ranks seventh in the GLVC while leading the conference with 18 doubles, a mark that ranks sixth in NCAA Division II.  Anderson has also driven in 30 runs which is the sixth-most in the league and owns a .610 slugging percentage mark that is eighth in the GLVC.

Ty Neal (Enid, OK/Kremlin-Hilldale) – who drove in the go-ahead run in the Miners' 2-1 win that completed the doubleheader sweep Saturday over Missouri-St. Louis – is hitting .288 on the season with 17 runs batted in, while Trista Grobe (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) is hitting .267 and has also driven in 17 runs.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: UIndy comes into Saturday's doubleheader ranked fifth in the latest American Softball Coaches Association rankings with wins in 25 of its last 26 games and in each of its last five since suffering a loss on March 29 at Missouri-St. Louis.  The Greyhounds are 34-3 overall and lead the GLVC with a 13-1 record after sweeping Lewis on Sunday.

Emily O'Connor leads the way at the plate with a .431 average that ranks second in the GLVC and has added a league-leading 14 home runs and 52 runs batted in, while Jocelyn Calvin is hitting .405 on the year for the league's top-hitting squad; the Greyhounds are hitting .335 as a unit.  Lexy Rees has also homered seven times and has knocked in 43 runs along the way.

The Greyhounds also have one of the top pitchers in the GLVC in Kenzee Smith, who is 19-1 with a 0.23 earned run average and 139 strikeouts in 121 2/3 innings.  Smith has an NCAA Division II-high 13 shutouts on the season and has the best earned run average in the nation.  Jayden Casebolt is 12-1 with a 1.48 ERA and has struck out 72 hitters on the season.

Lewis is 26-9 on the season and 11-3 in the GLVC after the two losses at UIndy, but still owns the third-best earned run average as a team in Division II at 1.25.  Allie Wondrasek has a 0.96 ERA and is 11-1 in the circle, while Delaney Garden is 11-5 with a 1.39 ERA and has struck out 141 hitters in 116 innings; her 8.5 strikeouts per seven innings is the best mark in the GLVC.

At the plate, the Flyers are paced by Gabi Niles with a .358 batting average and 20 runs batted in, while Garden is hitting .349.  The power has come from Anna Frafjord, who has homered seven times and has driven in 24 and Jalyn Powell, who has five homers and a team-leading 26 runs batted in.