SPRINGFIELD, IL --- The Prairie Stars are set to embark on a trip to the GLVC conference tournament for the second time in three seasons under the direction of head coach, Chris Ramirez. Illinois Springfield will take on the top-seed from the western division, Missouri S&T in the opening round of the tournament, playing the third game of the day at roughly 3:00 pm eastern time.

SETTING THE SCENE
 The Prairie Stars enter the contest with an overall record of 28-21, tying the highest win total for a single season in team history, matching that of the 2014 season when they went 28-24, also making the GLVC tournament. With a 15-13 mark in conference play, UIS finished in a tie for fourth in the east division, besting Lewis in the second tie-breaker.

Missouri S&T (34-15, 19-9) won the western division, large in part to winning their final six games of the regular season. The Miners took three-of-four from UMSL before ending the regular season with a four-game sweep of Maryville University to take the GLVC west crown from Quincy by one game.

EARLY SEASON RECAP
These two teams met early on in the season in the first home series for the Prairie Stars. The Miners took two-of-three from UIS, winning the opening and closing games of the three-game set. Keith Coulson, who ended the year as the wins leader in the GLVC, picked up the win in game one, outdueling Matt Farrington.

Chance Simpson shut down the Miners in game two for the lone win of the series, throwing six innings and giving up just five hits and two earned runs.

CONFERENCE RANKINGS
UIS ranks 10^th in the league in hitting (.289) but boast the sixth best team ERA (4.53). The Miner's however, rank third in both those categories, hitting to the tune of .312 while surrendering just 4.02 earned runs a game.

S&T set a program record with 24 triples this season while stealing 70 bases, which was good for third in the league. However, UIS blasted 44 homeruns compared to just 12 from the Miners

The Prairie Stars topped the league in strikeouts, totaling 367 batters on the season. They were one of two teams to strike out over 350 batters and were second in strike out looking, with 111 on the season. With that, UIS led the league in K's per game, with 8.49 while also allowing the second lowest doubles, the least triples, and fourth fewest homeruns per game.

GLVC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
Since 2011, UIS has made the conference tournament just once and went 0-2 in 2014. Missouri S&T has gone four times and is 2-8 in their four trips. They have gone twice in the past three seasons.

ALL-TIME HISTORY
UIS is 6-11 all-time against the Miners but 5-4 in their last nine games. Missoui S&T won eight of the first nine match-ups and since then, UIS has evened the series.

GLVC PREVIEW
The tournament will begin on Thursday morning at 9:00 am ET and will continue throughout the day with games every three hours. With a win, UIS will face the winner of UIndy and Rockhurst on Friday at 3:00 pm but with a loss, will face elimination at 9:00 on Friday.

The championship game is slated for Sunday afternoon.