Missouri baseball learned that revenge tastes sweet after Friday night’s game against the Charlotte 49ers.
After badly losing a series with the 49ers last year, the Tigers (6-5) made sure the story turned out differently this time around with a 10-4 victory.
“We had a little bit of added aggression from last year,” senior third baseman Conner Mach said. “We went down to Charlotte, and they whooped up on us a little bit. We definitely remembered that and it’s been something we’ve been talking about all week in practice.”
Coming into the match-up on a three-game winning streak with an offense that has scored 38 runs in the last three games, the Tigers clearly had momentum on their side. The bats were alive once more, and MU cruised to a convincing victory.
The game got off to a fast start, as Charlotte opened the scoring in the top of the first with a run off the bat of third baseman Shane Basen.
But the 49ers soon helped the Tiger cause in the bottom of the inning, when an errant throw toward home plate led directly to one of three runs the Tigers scored in response.
Coach Tim Jamieson said errors contributed to the Tiger victory.
“It all depends on whether or not we take advantage of it and we did,” Jamieson said. “They created some run scoring opportunities for us, but then we took advantage of it. They can make errors, and you could still not score runs.”
After the Tigers added a run in the second, Charlotte would climb back to within one run in the top of the third. 49ers first baseman Connor Shive hit a deep double and, with the tying run barreling down home plate, Missouri catcher Ben Turner caught the throw from the outfield and tagged out the runner after a hard collision.
“He’s unbelievable,” senior pitcher Jeff Emens said. “He’s the captain of this team. He knew what happened last year, and he wasn’t going to let that happen again. I love throwing to him.”
Emens earned the win after Friday starter Eric Anderson was taken out due to injury. Coming in during the fifth with the bases loaded and two outs, Emens successfully got the Tigers out of the jam. Emens kept the 49er offense off balance the remainder of the game, changing his speeds to keep the batters guessing.
“It’s not the ideal situation,” Emens said. “You’ve just got to come in and throw strikes.”
The Tigers pulled the game well out of reach in the seventh inning, scoring five runs and drawing the lead to seven. This lead would prove too difficult to overcome, as the Tigers cruised to a 10-4 victory.
Missouri and Charlotte will play again Saturday in a doubleheader. Games are scheduled for 1 and 4 p.m.
