Ryan Howard took his stance, loaded and fired a line drive into the back of the batting practice tunnel.
While his coach was in the next room talking to media about how the Tigers need to put this loss behind them, Howard was actually doing it –– thwacking line drive after line drive, each one harder than the last, into the back of the net. He was exorcising the bile that comes with losing a nail-biter against your in-state rival.
Missouri dropped a back-and-forth 9-8 contest to Missouri State Tuesday at Taylor Stadium. The team committed three errors, including two that allowed the Bears to take the lead in the top of the ninth.
Missouri coach Tim Jamieson wasn’t pleased with his team’s defensive play.
“We just have to play better defense,” he said. “Simple as that. If we play better defense, we win the game.”
The 26-15 Tigers absorbed the loss despite putting more runs on the board than they have in nearly two weeks. Jake Ring was a force at plate all night, tallying three hits and scoring three runs. Trey Harris tied the game 8-8 in the bottom of the eighth with his second homer in as many days.
Harris, whose clutch dinger barely cleared the left-center wall, said he didn’t know whether or not the ball missed the gloves of two leaping outfielders until he rounded second base.
“I got a little scared. I was like, ‘Oh, no!’” Harris said. “Then I saw them just sitting there on the ground. I was like, ‘Yes, finally, we’re tied up.’”
But Harris’ heroics weren’t enough as a bobbled throw by Zach Lavy and a fumbled grounder by Howard would doom them in the next frame.
Jamieson rejected the notion that the team was trying too hard to make plays in the final inning.
“I just think that we had a couple of guys who weren’t there mentally at different times tonight,” he said. “That will get you in trouble.”
It looked as though Mizzou would pull away from Missouri State after scoring seven runs in the first four innings to jump out to a 7-3 lead, but things fell apart for starting pitcher John Miles in the top of the sixth. The Bears put up a five-spot off of a passed ball, two doubles and a home run.
“(Miles) just made some bad pitches,” Jamieson said. “He elevated pitches on a day when the wind is blowing out, that’s no good.”
The Tigers are looking ahead to a crucial weekend series on the road against reigning national champion Vanderbilt. Both teams sit atop the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division with 14 games remaining on the schedule.
“This series means a lot,” senior infielder Brett Peel said. “We’re both at the top of the east and I think that puts a little more pressure on both teams. It’s going to be a fun weekend.”
