[en] We argue that the ratio S₃ = _#Lambda#³H/(³He x Λ/p) is a good representation of the local correlation between baryon number and strangeness, and therefore is a valuable tool to probe the nature of the dense matter created in high energy heavy-ion collision: quark gluon plasma or hadron gas. A multiphase transportmodel (AMPT) plus a dynamical coalescence model is used to elucidate our arguments. We find that AMPT with string melting predicts an increase of S₃ with increasing beam energy, and is consistent with experimental data, while AMPT with only hadronic scattering results in a low S₃ throughout the energy range from AGS to RHIC, and fails to describe the experimental data.