The pain in Mark Vierling’s elbow was becoming unbearable. After the Missouri sophomore took a pitch to his left arm in the second inning of Tuesday night’s game against Murray State, it had been difficult to even move his limb, much less hit and play second base.
Partway through the game, that all changed. A Missouri trainer gave Vierling some medical help and he went on to hit the game-winning RBI for the Tigers in the eighth inning.
“My arm was killing me the whole entire game,” Vierling said. “[After receiving treatment] I was fine and the rest is history.”
Vierling’s late hit sealed a 2-1 Tiger victory over the visiting Murray State Racers at Taylor Stadium. In a game where Missouri (12-8, 0-3) struggled to score runs despite putting plenty of runners aboard, it was a relief for Vierling and his teammates to break a 1-1 tie that had stood since the third inning.
“I got congratulated by a lot of the guys and they said ‘thank you,’” Vierling said. “I don’t know what it was, we strung hits, just couldn’t get a lot in one inning and finally got some in the eighth.”
After mustering little offense in a winless three-game series at No. 10 Arkansas last weekend, Missouri looked like it could jumpstart its offense early in Tuesday’s game. Junior Peter Zimmermann hit a solo home run into the Tiger bullpen in the first inning to hand Missouri an initial 1-0 lead.
But although Missouri continued to rack up hits over the next several innings, a lack of potency with runners in scoring position resulted in a total of eight Tigers being left on base over the course of the night.
What kept Missouri in good shape despite the lack of run support was the effort of starting pitcher Art Joven. The junior southpaw struck out a season-high 10 batters, allowing a run on two hits over 7.2 innings on the mound. After the Racers (8-11, 4-2 Ohio Valley Conference) plated a run in the third, Joven retired 17 consecutive Murray State batters until giving up a bunt single in the eighth.
“It feels good,” Joven said about his performance. “I just tried to keep it simple and give my team the best chance to win.”
Joven’s biggest mistake came when he mishandled a Murray State sacrifice bunt in the third inning, sparking a sequence of small ball plays that resulted in Murray State’s lone run. From that point forward, the Tiger offense struggled to take advantage of Joven’s dominance as the 1-1 tie persisted into the late innings.
“Overall, it just seemed like we were a little flat from the weekend still,” Missouri coach Steve Bieser said. “We’re used to playing really tight games, so I guess we decided we wanted to play a tight game tonight.”
Given the nature of the Tigers’ losses at Arkansas, which came by a combined total of four runs, Bieser had anticipated that the team’s energy might become a problem against Murray State.
“I tried everything I possibly could today to get us to come out not flat,” Bieser said. “That weekend really took a lot out of us because we gave everything we had and came up short.”
Missouri pushed itself ahead in the eighth after leadoff singles by junior Chris Cornelius and sophomore Chad McDaniel set up Vierling’s RBI hit. Vierling dropped a weak line drive into shallow left field just in front of Murray State left fielder Brock Anderson to give Cornelius time to cross the plate from second.
Senior relief pitcher Jordan Gubelman replaced Joven in the eighth and ninth innings and succeeded in slamming the door on the Racers’ rally chances. Anderson singled with one out in the ninth and advanced to second on a wild pitch, but Gubelman put the next two batters down on strikes to end the game.
The Tigers and Racers will complete their two-game series this afternoon. First pitch from Taylor Stadium is scheduled for 4 p.m. CDT.
_Edited by Emily Leiker | eleiker@themaneater.com_