After a 20-game home stand, Missouri found Austin, Texas, to be a much less forgiving venue last weekend. The Texas Longhorns swept the Tigers in a three game series, dropping their record to 13-15 overall and 1-4 in the Big 12.
Missouri started strong in Friday night’s debut tagging Longhorn ace Taylor Jungmann for four runs in the first five innings. The runs were the first Jungmann had allowed in his previous 25 innings on the mound as well as the most he had sacrificed all season.
Senior outfielder Jonah Schmidt provided the highlight for this scoring surge blasting a 2-run homer in the fifth inning to put the Tigers up 4-0. Blake Brown was Missouri’s other main offensive contributor as the sophomore outfielder produced his first three-hit game of the season going 3-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
Missouri freshman starter Rob Zastryzny held up his end of the bargain through the first four innings blanking the No. 8 Longhorns. However, Texas found its groove in the fifth inning touching up Zastryzny for four earned runs on five hits.
Texas then pulled ahead for good in the sixth inning as a Jordan Etier double down the left field line plated the go-ahead run. Both teams went scoreless the rest of the way, and the Longhorns escaped with a hard-fought 5-4 win.
Saturday marked more of the same for the Tigers, as Missouri fell to Texas 5-2 in the second game of the series. Tiger junior Matt Stites threw a career-high eight innings and 118 pitches allowing five runs on nine hits. His mediocre stat line is credited almost entirely to the offensive output of Texas’ Lucas Kephart, who proved ultimately to be Stites’ kryptonite. Kephart went 2-4 at the plate driving in all five of the Longhorns’ runs.
The Tigers, on the other hand, experienced a drought at the plate, producing only four hits and two runs. The runs both came on the same play, an pinch-hit RBI single by pinch-sophomore Scott Sommerfeld in the seventh inning. Missouri eventually fell 5-2, and hoped to regroup for the series finale on Sunday.
The Longhorns provided no relief, however, pounding out 12 hits and 10 runs in a 10-1 Sunday win and thus completing the series sweep. Senior lefty Zack Hardoin failed to escape the first inning relinquishing five earned runs on three hits and two walks before being pulled with two outs in the opening frame.
Texas starter Cole Green provided everything Hardoin could not giving up only one unearned run on four hits in eight innings of work. Missouri sophomore outfielder Dane Opel was the only Tiger to show signs of life at the plate, as he went 2-4 with both a double and a triple.
The Tigers were overwhelmed in every aspect of the game Sunday marking an unflattering end to an underwhelming 1-3 road trip. They will attempt to return to form in a showdown with rival Kansas in Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night. The Tigers will then hit the road once again, traveling to Stillwater, Okla., for a three-game series with the Oklahoma State Cowboys next weekend.