Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said he hadn’t seen a batted ball reach Devine Pavillion beyond the fence in right field since college baseball made the switch to BBCOR in 2011, in an effort to have metal bats more closely replicate their wooden counterparts.
Zach Lavy’s towering home run in the 6th inning did just that, and it was his second of the day to boot.
Tanner Houck spun a gem, retiring 21 of the first 22 Gator batters he faced, and Zach Lavy became the first Tiger to hit two homeruns in a game since Blake Brown did it March 14, 2012 as Mizzou cruised to a 10-1 victory of No. 4 Florida.
Greeting reporters after the game, Jamieson quipped, “Why can’t they all be like this one?”
The coach can’t be blamed for his wishful thinking, this truly was a banner game for the Tigers.
Mizzou struck early, plating six runs in the first three innings on the strength of Brett Bond’s team-leading 4th homerun, Lavy’s first homerun of the day and a Josh Lester double. Being able to put runs on the board early presaged victory for the Tigers, as it has all year — the team is 14-4 on the year when scoring first.
“One of the points we talked about before the game was to just have fun,” Lavy said. “We stayed within ourselves and didn’t try to go out of our approach. We just did our job and did it right. I had a blast out there.”
Houck said he had a head cold coming into the game, but he decided to fight through it and ended up having one of his best performances of the year. He retired the first 10 batters he faced before surrendering a hit in the fourth inning. Houck was hardly phased, though, and went on to retire the next 11 Gator batsmen. His final line on the day was eight innings pitched, four hits allowed and just one earned run.
“I think I had great command,” Houck said. “I was able to command both sides of the plate really well with my fastball and then then set it up really nice with my slider.”
Houck was quick to defer the glory to his teammates though, crediting their run support and play in the field.
“All the guys made great plays behind me,” he said. “Run support was just amazing too, everybody in the line up saw the ball real well and crushed it when they could.”
Mizzou is now 21-11 on the year with a 7-4 record in conference play. They have the fourth best overall record in the SEC and are currently in second place in the Eastern Division.
