ROLLA, Mo.  --  Missouri S&T Baseball is hosting conference leader Illinois Springfield this weekend. The series will be played as a pair of doubleheaders taking place on Saturday and Sunday, both with 12pm start times.

The series is a rematch of last year's Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) championship game, as well as a matchup of the top two teams in the conference this season, with the winner of the series set to take over the top spot in the GLVC standings.
 
About the Miners
The Miners are tied with Illinois Springfield for the best in-conference record this year, with both programs holding a mark of 14-2. S&T has not lost a game in nearly a month, winning their last fifteen in a row with series sweeps against Truman State, Rockhurst, and Southwest Baptist in that time. They have been receiving votes in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) poll for the past two weeks.

S&T is hitting .329 as a team, ranking them 29th in Division II. Bricen Smith (Perry, GA/Mount de Sales Academy) holds the highest batting average on the team with a .403 mark while teammates Garrett Meyer (Jacksonville, IL/Jacksonville) and Aiden Cizek (Wildwood, MO/Lafayette) are not far behind with averages of .396 and .390.

Dylan Bates (O'Fallon, MO/Fort Zumwalt West) continues to lead the team in ERA, holding a 3.66 mark that is sixth-best in the GLVC. He also leads the team in total strikeouts with 31, followed by Andrew Hedgecorth (Smithville, MO/Smithville) with 28. Dylan Wipf (Oak Park, IL/River Forest) has performed well in relief, holding opponents to a team-low .216 batting average and striking out 15 in 10.1 innings pitched.
 
About the Prairie Stars
Like S&T, Illinois Springfield has been receiving votes in national polls this year, ranking T-30th in ABCA poll. They are 26-8 this year, with a 14-2 conference against GLVC opponents. They have won their last four games, taking three in their series against Truman State while adding a midweek victory over Missouri-St. Louis on Tuesday.

They rank top three in the conference for eighteen different statistics, including ninth in Division II for runs per game with an average of 10.0 per game. They also rank eighth in both home runs and slugging percentage with 59 and .567. Corey Boyette is the conference's leader in batting average, with a mark of .442 that is also 17th in Division II.

Illinois Springfield leads the GLVC in earned run average, giving up 5.64 earned runs per game. Despite the team success on the mound, the Prairie Stars do not have any pitchers in the top ten of the conference, with Ben Benoit leading the team with a 5.10 ERA.
 
What's Next
The Miners will host #9 Pitt State for a midweek on Wednesday before traveling to Romeoville for a series against the Lewis Flyers.
 
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