After facing three power arms in their previous series against Texas A&M, the Tigers have returned home and been treated to just the opposite.
With Baylor’s Josh Turley for a 3-1 loss Thursday and Trent Blank in a 5-3 defeat Friday, the Tigers (16-13, 3-5 Big 12 Conference) have matched up against pitchers that have pounded the zone and nibbled the corners, all while mixing effective off-speed pitches and breaking balls.
Therefore, Tim Jamieson’s lineup has to be patient at the plate and put the ball in play, especially hard to the opposite field, to get rallies going and produce offense.
That approach, combined with some timely errors, gave the Tigers multiple scoring chances Friday. However, Missouri was chronically at a lack for the clutch hit, leaving 11 runners on base and dropping its third straight game.
“These guys try to keep you off balance and work both sides of the plate,” senior third baseman Conner Mach said. “You’ve got to tip your hat. They threw a lot of strikes these last couple of games.”
The Tigers got off to about as fast a start as anyone could have asked for. Junior right fielder and leadoff hitter Blake Brown scalded a double down the left-field line and junior center fielder Brannon Champagne bunted him over, putting a runner on third with one out.
Junior designated hitter Scott Sommerfeld struck out, though, and Mach’s long fly ball to left stayed in the yard.
Missouri looked like it was about to burst in the bottom of the seventh, when sophomore second baseman Dillon Everett scored on a throwing error and junior shortstop Eric Garcia walked with the bases loaded.
But the Tigers would strand their runners again, as senior catcher Ben Turner grounded out to third to end the inning.
Jamieson attributed much of Missouri’s difficulties with runners in scoring position to the team’s mindset.
“Someone’s got to want to be up at the plate in an RBI situation,” he said. “That will go a long way, to have a guy with confidence up there in those types of situations. If you don’t get it done one time, it gives momentum to the other team, and if you don’t get it done multiple times then guys at the plate start to doubt. We’ve just got to have the right thoughts.”
Junior Blake Holovach got the start for Missouri and, despite allowing a home run to the leadoff batter, handed in a decent performance, allowing four runs on nine hits over 5.2 innings.
“I think I bounced back well because I thought it was a good pitch,” he said about his recovery from the leadoff shot. “I knew I was going to bust that guy inside, so that was my approach. I thought it was a pretty good pitch and he just turned on it.”
One area Holovach said he struggled in was falling behind in counts. He did not allow any walks, but was not as sharp control-wise as he has shown in his other outings.
“The only thing I can say is I just didn’t throw enough first pitch strikes, and got behind way too much,” he said. “I thought I battled pretty well, because I didn’t have my best stuff, but like I said, I just got behind too much and they took advantage of it.”
Missouri will wrap up its series with Baylor at 11 p.m. Saturday.
