Missouri defeated Ole Miss 18-1 Saturday to claim the series against the Rebels.
No, you do not need to check your prescription.
The Tigers (28-19, 14-9 SEC) recorded 18 runs, their most ever in a Southeastern Conference game, and cruised to an easy victory over the Rebels (24-24, 10-13 SEC).
After being swept last weekend by Vanderbilt and losing both games against rival Missouri State, the Tigers needed to respond in a big way against Ole Miss and did just that.
“If you looked out there today, you wouldn’t have even known that we had lost five in a row before last night,” third baseman Josh Lester said. “There was no doubt in our minds that we were going to win that game.”
Mizzou pounded out 15 hits, including five home runs, the first time the Tigers have hit five dingers in a game since March 30, 2010 against Purdue.
“Certainly the confidence came back pretty quick,” Tigers’ head coach Tim Jamieson said. “The game is that way. I felt like it was time to turn things around.”
After a narrow 4-2 victory Friday night, the Tigers staked out an early lead for starter Tanner Houck (W, 7-3). After a sacrifice fly scored the game’s first run, Trey Harris (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI) smacked a two-run, opposite-field shot to give Houck an early three-run cushion.
With the Tigers ahead 4-0 in the fourth inning, Houck got into his first jam after he walked the first two Ole Miss batters. He would settle down after a meeting with Jamieson and got out of the inning with no damage done. Houck tossed six innings of shutout baseball for the Tigers after struggling mightily in a 12-2 loss to Vanderbilt last weekend. Jamieson and Houck both attributed last weekend’s poor outing to Houck becoming tighter as the season has progressed.
“He’s gradually been getting tighter and tighter,” Jamieson said. “For (Houck) to have this many starts in the SEC as a freshman, we’ve never had anybody do this before. There’s some miles on there that he’s not used to.”
Houck also decided on a change of uniform for his start against Ole Miss. The freshman elected to wear throwbacks on Saturday with alumni on hand.
“It’s more of a feel thing,” Houck said. “I like being loose out there and (the throwbacks) were just feeling loose when I tried them on the other day.”
The middle innings were where the Tigers did most of their damage. Between the fifth and sixth, Mizzou saw 13 runs go up on the board, including an eight-run sixth.
“It was pretty unbelievable,” shortstop Ryan Howard said. “It was a lot of fun. It was like everything we were hitting was finding a hole.”
Mizzou hit three of its home runs between those two innings. Jake Ivory (2-for-4, HR) got things started with a solo shot to left and Lester (2-for-4, HR, 2B, 4 RBI) smoked one into the trees to extend the lead to 9-0 after five.
A three-run bomb from Brett Bond (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI) past the bullpen in left pushed the Tigers’ lead to 17-0 in the sixth. Chris Akmon (1-for-1, HR) hit a pinch-hit homer as well in the eighth to make it 18-0.
“Everyone swung the bat well today so everyone’s going to go up there and feel good tomorrow,” Howard said. “I don’t think we’re going to repeat that, but we can still put up good numbers.”
With the win, Missouri remains tied with Florida for second place in the SEC East.
The Tigers will go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon with junior Peter Fairbanks (4-3) on the mound. Jamieson made sure to tell his team that they cannot let down tomorrow.
“Tomorrow’s a huge game for us,” he said. “We win tomorrow and guarantee ourselves 15 wins (in the SEC). Historically, that’s postseason.”