ST. LOUIS - The Maryville baseball team has a 50-game schedule lined up for the 2012 season. The year begins with a three-game series at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., Feb. 11-12. The teams play a doubleheader Saturday, Feb. 11, and play a single game Sunday, Feb. 12.

The Saints host their first home game of the season Tuesday, Feb. 28, when Lincoln comes to Weber Field. Maryville heads to Winter Haven, Fla., to play three games, and it begins Great Lakes Valley Conference play with doubleheaders at Southern Indiana and Kentucky Wesleyan March 17 and 18. Bellarmine is the first GLVC home opponent Saturday, March 24.

The Saints close out the home portion of the conference slate with a four-game set versus Drury April 28-29. The final regular-season series takes place at Missouri S&T May 5-6. Last season, the Saints finished with a 9-35 overall record, 5-25 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Saints Begin 2012 Season at Harding

The Maryville baseball team begins the 2012 season with a three-game series at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. The teams play a doubleheader Saturday, Feb. 11, starting at Noon and play a single game Sunday, Feb. 12, at 1 p.m.

About Harding

Last season, the Bisons finished 42-13 and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament. Harding was ranked 24th in the final Division II poll last season and is ranked 28th in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper preseason poll.

More on Maryville

Last season, the Saints finished with a 9-35 overall record, 5-25 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Leading the Saints will be team captains Nick Little, Caleb 'Bob' Miller and Colby White. Little and last season’s Rookie of the Year Kyle Kinyon are the top returning hitting hitters after both posted a .291 average last year.

While led the team in RBIs with 17 and eight extra base hits. On the mound, Maryville’s leading returners are Jared Green who had two wins and a 2.70 ERA last season, and Brandon Sarkissian who topped the team with 24 strikeouts.

Miller, a native of Dexter, Mo., was a key player in the Saints' outfield last season, where he amassed a .881 fielding percentage. The junior looks to improve on his .224 batting average (.240 career) from last season.

For Openers

The Saints will host Lincoln in its home opener Tuesday, Feb. 28, in a 1 p.m. game at Weber Field. The first Great Lakes Valley Conference series is Saturday, March 17, when Maryville plays at Southern Indiana. The first home GLVC series begins Saturday, March 24, as Bellarmine comes to town for a Noon doubleheader.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

BERNIE - The Mules picked up 31 points from the charity stripe on the way to a 71-43 victory against the Hayti Indians on Tuesday night.

“I’m real proud of our team tonight. Hayti is coming off the Bootheel Conference Championship and we really stepped up and played well," head coach Brad Botsch said after the win. "We’ve faced some adversity lately, and our kids really bought in and stepped up."

Bernie doubled up the Tribe in the opening quarter thanks to an early trey from Troy Kirkpatrick. The Mules exploded for a 24 point effort in the second quarter with B.J. Jennings knocking down a three and Kirkpatrick hitting two more from downtown. Bernie held a big 36-20 lead heading into halftime.

Jiemel Covington and Hunter Turnon both connected from beyond the arc early in the third quarter for Hayti, but the Mules were able to preserve a 20 point lead with a perfect 8-8 effort from the line. 13 of Bernie's 20 points in the fourth quarter came from the stripe, and the Mules improved to 14-8 on the season with the victory.

"I think we showed more poise and confidence than we have all year," Botsch said. "We took care of the ball and didn’t play timidly."

"When players believe in their abilities and each other, good things generally happen, and they believed tonight," he added. "However, it will be important for us to keep this win in perspective and understand that it’s just one game. We must continue working hard as we have all year and build off of this. I’m real happy for our kids, they work hard and persevered tonight and we hope to keep it going."

Kirkpatrick led the Mules with 19 points, while Landon Woods and David Baker added 15 and 14, respectively.

In JV action, the Mules moved to 18-0 on the season with a 57-31 victory.

Bernie will be back in action again on Friday night, when they travel to Malden to face the Green Wave. Tipoff is set for 6:00 p.m.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

Missouri Tiger fans have a lot to be happy about these days.

MU's basketball team is currently No. 4 in the nation, and posted a big win in what could be the final 'Border War' game with Kansas played on Mizzou's campus.

The football team signed the nation's top-ranked wide receiver prospect, Dorial Green-Beckham, on National Signing Day last week.

On Tuesday, Tiger fans received even more good news - Elvis Fisher has been granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA. 

ROLLA - The Missouri S&T Lady Miners took a break from Great Lakes Valley earning a 71-46 victory over future GLVC member McKendree on Thursday evening at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. The Lady Miners shot 49.2 percent in the contest and improved to 15-6 on the season.

The Bearcats (7-16) scored the first point of the contest for their only lead of the night and held S&T scoreless for the first two minutes. Quintonia Evans (Evansville, Ind.) put the Lady Miners on the board with a follow-up shot off a Hailee Parks (Sullivan, Mo./Sullivan) miss. That basket sparked S&T as it scored the next seven points.

Leann Voss made it a 3-point game nailing a trey from the wing less than five minutes into the contest. That would be the closest McKendree got the rest of the evening as the Lady Miners scored the next six points to increase their lead to nine by the 12:25 mark.

The game remained to hover around a 10-point margin over the next 10 minutes before S&T closed the first half out by scoring eight of the final 10 points to take a 31-17 lead into the locker room at the break.

The Lady Miners shot 47 percent (14-for-30) from the floor in the opening stanza and outrebounded the Bearcats by a 21-17 margin. Kyesha Hall (Dodson, La.) and Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) led the with eight and seven points respectively.

McKendree was just 7-of-28 (25 percent) from the floor in the frame and were led by Ashley Agee's seven points off the bench.

The Bearcats scored the first bucket of the second half on a layup by Brittany Willis to make it 31-19 just 0:21 in.

From that point S&T took control going an 18-5 run over the next five minutes. Meyer scored six points in the run while Evans and Courtney Kemp (Fredricktown, Mo./Fredricktown) had four apiece.

The lead grew to 31 points on two different occasions with the last one coming at the 1:42 mark on a layup by Karli Sample (St. Joseph, Mo./Benton).

The Lady Miners shot 52 percent in the second half and were 4-for-7 from downtown as they finished the contest 29-of-59 from the floor and outrebounded McKendree by a 39-to-32 margin. Meyer and Hall were the only two in double figures finishing with 13 and 10 respectively.

S&T forced 24 turnovers in the contest turning those into 16 points. The Lady Miners also had the edge in the paint outscoring them by 22 points.

The Bearcats shot 40 percent (10-for-25) in the second half to finish the contest shooting 32.1 percent. Agee was the lone player in double figures for McKendree finishing with 10 points.

S&T begins a three-game road swing with a trip to St. Louis on Thursday to take on the Tritons of Missouri-St. Louis beginning at 5:30 p.m.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

The chips weren't in the Bearcats' favor to start the 2011-2012 season.

They lost their leading scorer and emotional leader to graduation.

They had several starters still banged up from football season.

They opened the season with a 'Murderer's Row' of a schedule.

Despite the odds, the Bearcats have done a great job of turning what some could have called a 'lost cause' of a season around. After starting the season 0-5, the 'Cats have won 13 of their last 17, and are currently on a 10 game win streak after a 94-45 thrashing of the Bell City Cubs on Tuesday night at the Bearcat Event Center.

The 'Cats already held a blowout win over Bell City from the SCAA Tournament in January, and this time forced the Cubs into double-digit turnovers in the first quarter.

"We came out with a lot more energy than what I anticipated. We played really well early and built that big lead, and the kids played with a lot of energy all night," Dexter head coach Rob Nichols said. "Things got a little sloppy there in the second half, especially late, but I'm pretty pleased with their effort."

"We guarded well early and got a lot of deflections and turnovers. When you're doing that, it really picks up your energy," Nichols continued. "When you're scoring easy buckets, everything seems to flow a lot better."

The Bearcats came out of the gate with great ball pressure on defense. Dexter's full court press caused the Cubs to cough up the ball seven times in the first 2:30 of the contest. Trey Giger dropped in the Cubs' first bucket at the 4:45 mark, but the 'Cats had already put 14 points on the board. Tyler Miller knocked down his first three of the game to give the 'Cats a 19-2 lead at the 2:45 mark. DHS held a massive 26-4 lead after the opening frame.

Miller knocked down treys number two and three in the second quarter, and teammate D.J. Dowdy joined in on the three parade at the 1:25 mark to give the 'Cats a 50-10 lead. A pair of offensive rebound and stickbacks from Cody Neldon pushed the 'Cats to a 54-17 lead at halftime.

Miller took to the air in the third quarter; the 6'3" senior had a dunk and tip-in layup in the first 30 seconds of the second half. Jake Lee crossed into double-double territory at the 4:53 mark. Josh Overby earned a pair of three point plays for the 'Cubs in the frame, but the 'Cats maintained their huge lead heading into the final eight minutes.

Jonathan Page, who had a great game coming off the bench for the 'Cats, had a tip-in layup midway through the fourth quarter to cap off his 12 point second half effort. The junior led the Bearcats' bench players late in the fourth, and helped the 'Cats seal a 94-45 victory.

In the JV contest, the 'Cats fought off a slow first half and took home a 57-36 'W'. Stevie Payne led the young 'Cats with 15 points and nine boards.

The Bearcats have a tough three-game stretch to close the season; Friday night, they face Kennett on the road. Tuesday, the 'Cats travel to Poplar Bluff before concluding the season at home against Cape Central. Nichols was quick to note the difficult competition the 'Cats will be up against and the challenges Tuesday's game presented.

"That's what we talked about at halftime of this game; we needed to make sure in the second half that we played with good focus defensively and not be sloppy with the ball," he said. "We have three games coming up with Kennett, Bluff, and Cape Central. All three are solid teams, and it could go either way; we could win those games, or they are very capable of beating us as well."

Tip of Friday's contest at Kennett is set for 6:00 p.m.