John Miles is one of the more versatile pitchers Missouri baseball coach Tim Jamieson has in his arsenal.
With Alec Rash’s status in question due to a strained shoulder, Jamieson handed the ball to Miles for a spot start in a mid-week game against Air Force (8-10, 5-4 MWC). Miles was dominant throughout as Mizzou (16-4, 3-0 SEC) cruised to a 6-0 victory over the Falcons at Taylor Stadium in Columbia on Tuesday.
After taking on the Friday night starting role to open last season, Miles had been stationed in the bullpen for much of this year early on. After two relief appearances, he got his first start of the season against Truman State last week, but did not record a decision. Against Air Force, it was a different story. Miles tossed six shutout innings and allowed just three hits en route to his first victory of the season.
“In college baseball you’ve got to have some guys that are capable of (starting and coming out of the bullpen),” Jamieson said. “With Alec (Rash) being shut down for a little bit, John (Miles) took the ball and did really well with it.”
Jamieson described Miles’ interchangeability as a luxury the team cannot afford to lose.
“That’s something we haven’t had in the past and it makes a huge difference,” Jamieson said. “You need to have a versatile guy like that, if not more than one.”
Although Miles was in control throughout, he did have plenty of help early on. The Tigers struck for runs in each of the first three innings to build a 6-0 cushion for Miles.
Sophomore Ryan Howard (2-for-4, 2B, 4 RBI) smacked an RBI single through the right side to open up the scoring and followed that up with a bases-clearing, two-out double to the right-center gap to break the game open. The Tigers held a 5-0 lead at that point and added another run via an RBI-triple by senior Logan Pearson (1-for-3, 3B RBI) in the third.
“Any time we can score early in the game it makes it a lot easier pitching,” Howard said. “It just gives the guys confidence that we’re going to be able to win the game because our pitching has been so good.”
From there, Miles settled in and did not let Air Force establish any offensive presence at the plate. The Falcons did not have a base runner reach third base until the sixth inning.
“It’s a lot of stress and anxiety off my chest when I know those guys are putting up numbers like that,” Miles said of the early offense.
It was a solid all-around effort for the Tigers, who showed no lack of focus due to Air Force being a non-conference opponent and Mizzou coming off a sweep of Southeastern Conference foe Georgia.
“Every time we play out of conference it’s a trap game because we’re a big-name school out of the SEC,” Jamieson said. “We just need to match the intensity.”
The Tigers have won six consecutive games and will conclude their two-game set against Air Force Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.