Missouri baseball accomplished something they had not done in seven years. The Tigers (22-11, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) capped off a series win over No. 4 Florida (24-9, 6-6 SEC) with a 5-3 victory on Sunday to give the team its first series win against a top-five opponent since 2008.
Numerous players stood out over the weekend, but Alex Del Rio took center stage. The freshman earned his first career start against the Gators on Friday and had a game-tying single Sunday to help propel Mizzou to the series win.
“(Del Rio) gives you pretty good at-bats,” Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said. “He doesn’t chase a lot of pitches, and he’s patient.”
Del Rio said he didn’t realize he would crack the starting lineup as the team’s designated hitter in the series opener until Jamieson posted the lineup card.
“This week, I heard some people talking, and then on Thursday, (Jamieson) told me that I wasn’t going to redshirt and to get ready to play,” Del Rio said.
Slotted eighth in the batting order, Del Rio showed his patient approach after he worked deep counts in each of his first two at-bats Friday in a 5-1 loss, eventually drawing walks both times. He would later ground out to first for his only official at-bat of the game.
In the second game of the series, Del Rio appeared as a pinch hitter and flew out to mid-right field in his only at-bat. He would not be discouraged by his 0-for-2 start, however, as he bounced back in a big way in the series finale Sunday.
After a leadoff double in the fifth by Zach Lavy (2-for-3, 2B), Del Rio (1-for-2, RBI) stepped to the plate with one out and the Tigers trailing 1-0. Mizzou had collected just three hits in the ballgame up to that point. Del Rio smacked a 1-2 fastball up the middle, scoring Lavy and tying the game.
“When I got in the box, I was thinking mostly fastball,” Del Rio said. “(Gators starter Dane Dunning) served me up two fastballs and I was late, so I knew I needed to make an adjustment. Next pitch was a changeup low, but I was still looking for a fastball away and I was able to get around on it enough and stick it up the middle.”
Mizzou would go on to score four more runs in the fifth, three on a home run by Ryan Howard, his second of the season, and the Tigers would never look back.
“I just wanted (Del Rio) to go out there and give us good at-bats,” Jamieson said. “The fact that he had a couple walks and base hit was a big lift for us.”
Tigers’ starting pitcher for game three, Peter Fairbanks (W, 4-3), had told Del Rio that his moment to shine was about to happen.
“They didn’t want the pressure situations they were in,” Fairbanks said. “I think that the morale of the team is that we were in it, focused and wanted it.”
Del Rio said that sticking to his approach has helped him out the most this season in practice, and it translated over to his at-bat against Dunning.
“It was great,” Del Rio said. “He had two strikes on me, and I was looking for something fast. I got it and found a hole.”
Perhaps even more importantly than getting Del Rio going, the Tigers moved one step closer to a berth in the NCAA tournament. Mizzou has not reached the tournament since the 2012 season. Prior to the series against the Gators, Baseball America had the Tigers pegged as a No. 2 seed in the Stillwater, Oklahoma, regional, but a series win against a top-five opponent like Florida could bump the Tigers into conversation to host a regional for the first time since 2007.
“(The series win) is huge for us in terms of building a resume for the year,” Jamieson. “To have a top-ten win is huge and (the team) is full of all the right thoughts right now.”
