ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's softball team begins a stretch in which it will play eight of its final 10 regular season games at home – including its last six Great Lakes Valley Conference contests – by first stepping outside of league play for a doubleheader Friday afternoon against Lincoln before returning to the conference slate Sunday for a key twinbill against Maryville at the S&T Softball Field.

The Miners dropped three of their four games on their final GLVC road trip of the season, salvaging the final game of the trip behind a one-hit shutout by Bryn Wooldridge (Salisbury, Mo./Salisbury) to defeat Lewis 1-0 on Sunday.  That victory kept S&T above the .500 mark in the GLVC at 11-9 and improved its overall mark to 20-24 heading into Friday's contests.

Wooldridge allowed only a single in the fourth inning and set down the final eight Flyers to improve her record to 11-9 on the season. She owns a 3.95 earned run average and has struck out a staff-high 128 batters in 115 1/3 innings, while Charlye Rowland (Pearcy, Ark./Lake Hamilton) has 115 strikeouts in 119 innings with a 3.06 ERA.

At the plate, Sydney Anderson (Elkhart, IA/North Polk) continues to lead the Miners in hitting with a .383 batting average that ranks ninth in the GLVC, while also leading the conference with 18 doubles and ranking 10^th in slugging percentage at .586.  Anderson has also driven in a team-high 30 runs, while Wooldridge has knocked in 22 as she is also hitting .351 on the year.

Ty Neal (Enid, OK/Kremlin-Hilldale) comes into the weekend with a .290 batting average and Trista Grobe (DeSoto, MO/DeSoto) is hitting .281 with a team-leading three home runs; she hit her third in the opening game of Sunday's doubleheader to lead off the contest.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: Lincoln comes into the week at 12-28 prior to a home doubleheader with Truman State on Wednesday.  The Blue Tigers are paced at the plate by Abbi Conrad, who is batting .336 on the season with a team-leading 39 hits and Maris Ollison, who owns a .322 average and leads Lincoln with three home runs and 19 runs batted in.

The Blue Tigers – who will be joining the GLVC next season – have a team earned run average of 4.87 prior to the Truman contests; Abby Pulliam has a 3.40 mark in 14 appearances and Mallorey Rogers has struck out 39 to lead the staff.

Maryville went 0-4 over the weekend on the same trip the Miners went on and comes into a Wednesday doubleheader at Central Missouri at 18-25 overall and 10-10 in the GLVC.  Jenna Kosnoff leads the Saints at the plate with a .347 average for a team that has four players hitting over .300 and is among 10 players that have driven in 10 or more runs, with Brooklyn Moore and Isabella Garcia leading the way with 15 apiece.

Chayse Ramey has done the bulk of the pitching for Maryville this season, as she has made 27 starts and thrown 157 2/3 of the 273 1/3 pitched by the staff.  She has struck out 111 hitters in her time in the circle and has a 2.84 earned run average to go with her 14-12 record.