A season with plenty of ups and downs has drawn to a close for Missouri baseball. Faced with an NCAA tournament elimination game Sunday against third-seeded Louisville at the Tucson Regional in Tucson, Ariz., the Tigers came up short and lost 11-3.
Not having competed in the NCAA tournament since 2009, Missouri began surprising postseason play with a Cinderella story at the Big 12 Conference Tournament.
Seemingly embodying their entire back-and-forth season, the Tigers traveled to Oklahoma City, Okla., with a meager 10-14 record versus conference opponents. Yet none of that seemed to matter when the team walked away with the Big 12 championship for the first time in its final season after defeating Oklahoma, a team that had swept them earlier in the year.
The team’s Big 12 glory set the stage for a first-round match with top-seeded Arizona at the Tucson Regional.
An early 2-0 lead almost suggested another unlikely Tiger upset, but the Wildcats slowly climbed back, stopping the Tigers’ momentum in its tracks. A seven-run seventh inning for Arizona then put the game out of reach, and the Wildcats blew out the Tigers 15-3.
The loss dropped the Tigers into an elimination game with New Mexico State.
Backed against the wall and facing the end to their season altogether, the Tigers pulled out another unlikely feat. The game was locked at 2-1 in the Aggies’ favor, and Tigers were having trouble mounting any sort of offensive retaliation to the arm of Adam Mott.
“The first seven innings offensively were frustrating, but that’s why you play nine,” head coach Tim Jamieson said during the postgame press conference. “I thought their guy was really good.”
In the eighth, the frustration turned to jubilation as the Tiger’s bats came alive. Senior Conner Mach sent Mott to the bench after screaming a double into the outfield. Junior Dane Opel then tied the game at two with an RBI single, scoring Mach.
The fireworks continued as sophomore Michael McGraw and junior Scott Sommerfeld both notched triples, followed closely by another RBI single, this time off the bat of junior Eric Garcia. When the third out was finally called, Missouri had rallied to score five runs on five hits.
“For the past week or so we played with our backs up against the wall,” Sommerfeld said in the postgame press conference. “We just know how to compete. We knew we had it in us. That inning was a big relief, and you could tell the tension was just relieved from everybody in the dugout after that inning.”
The Tigers won the game 6-2, prolonging their season for at least one more game. Still facing elimination, the team took on Louisville the following day.
With a depleted bullpen, the Tigers started senior Dusty Ross on the mound. Ross, typically the team’s closer, was jumped on early and the Cardinals quickly leaped out to a 3-0 lead in the first.
The Tigers fought back, cutting the lead to 4-3, but a three-run sixth put Louisville too far in front. The Tigers lost the game 11-3.
Though disappointed faces were not hard to find, there was something more present at the postgame press conference: pride in what the team had accomplished.
Sommerfeld perhaps summarized the season best.
“You’re never out of the picture,” Sommerfeld said. “The best recap of our season is the way we battled. I think that sums up our team and the group of guys we have. Top to bottom, we have fighters and that’s what got us to where we were.”