With a bizarre mix of collective improvement and disappointment, the Missouri baseball team experienced a little bit of everything in a two-game series with Gonzaga on Tuesday and Wednesday at Taylor Stadium. The Tigers split the series, winning 5-2 on Tuesday before falling 4-1 on Wednesday, to bring their record to 4-8 overall.
Tuesday’s victory proved to be everything the Tigers needed in a struggling start to the season. Senior Zach Hardoin fueled an energetic and focused team effort with a one-run, two-hit performance in 6.2 innings to collect the mound victory, his first of the young 2011 season.
“I was getting ahead of a lot of hitters, and I was getting them to chase a lot of pitches that weren’t hitters’ pitches,” Hardoin said. “Our team needed a big win and it was just great to go out there and give us a chance to do that.”
The Tiger offense added to a one-run lead grabbed in the first inning by driving in the remaining four runs in the fourth, all with two outs. Five consecutive batters reached base in the sequence as sophomore catcher Ben Turner, sophomore first baseman Scott Sommerfield and senior shortstop Jesse Santo recorded RBI’s en route to a 5-0 lead.
Turner, Garcia and Santo led the Tigers on the day with two hits each.
“No matter how many outs, we feel comfortable that we can score runs,” Santo said.
Everything that worked in Tuesday’s victory appeared to have dissipated in Wednesday night’s showing. In a reversal of roles from the first game, Gonzaga took the early lead and stayed the course, putting a three-spot on the board in the first inning en route to the 4-1 victory.
The Tigers were unable to recover from the first inning damage, totaling just one run on five hits of their own for the rest of the contest. The prevailing theme among players and coaches was that the aggression that sparked Wednesday’s win just wasn’t there in the series finale.
“I thought the difference in the game was how competitive we were not in the game (while Gonzaga) had some pretty competitive at-bats,” coach Tim Jamieson said. “Even the balls we put into play, the result was a non-aggressive swing a vast majority of the time. That’s disappointing.”
The feeling among the players was much of the same.
“We came out a little flat,” sophomore outfielder Blake Brown said. “In the leadoff spot, I kind of set the tone in a bad way. I came out and I struck out looking and I didn’t really respond positively like I should have. I take full responsibility for what happened tonight.”
With the aggression theme defining the Gonzaga series, the key to turning the season around is a change in mindset, Sommerfeld said.
“When you’re playing this game, it’s who can deliver the punch rather than who takes the punch,” Sommerfeld said. “It’s who can repeat and who can have that mindset of really bearing down and taking control of that.”
