Clawing their way back from a 3-0 deficit, Missouri baseball rallied at the plate, fighting their way back during the middle innings of Sunday’s matinee against Omaha. They were in prime position to win the finale of a high-scoring, back-and-forth series, tied 3-3 heading into the ninth.
Then everything fell apart.
Missouri allowed six runs in the ninth, losing 9-3 and splitting the weekend series with the Mavericks.
The Tigers had freshman Zach Hise on the bump in the ninth. Hise has been in these high-pressure situations before, getting the save against Grand Canyon last weekend, and then doing the same thing in the first game of this four game set.
Hise had also gone through a clean eighth inning that saw Mavericks hitters go quiet, unable to keep up with the constant mix of pitches. His fastball, changeup and slider were all tough to hit.
However, the ninth inning was a different story. Omaha started with a bang that came in the form of a Chris Esposito triple. Hise then walked the next batter.
Hise froze left fielder Matt Bondarchuk and was ready to do the same thing to catcher Brett Bonar. But on a tight inside fastball, Bonar muscled a single right over the head of second baseman Mark Vierling to give Omaha the lead.
That was the only run they needed, but not the only run they got. An offensive onslaught followed the single for the Mavericks.
Five straight batters reached base. The visitors tallied six runs and took away any chance of a comeback.
“You got to give the other team their credit. They really are a momentum offense; they did a good job,” coach Steve Bieser said. “They handled our pitchers very well, and that’s kind of been a trend of this season so far, and we’ve got to figure it out on the mound.”
The highlight of the ninth was a two-run double to left center by third baseman Breyden Eckhout. It was Eckhout’s second-biggest hit of the day.
The first came all the way back in the second inning. Eckhout hit what initially looked like a routine fly ball. However, it was a windy day at Taylor Stadium, where there is no such thing as routine.
The ball carried so far that right fielder Andrew Keefer eventually ran out of room and watched the moonshot land far past the Nissan sign out in right.
That gave Omaha an early three-run advantage, one that the Tigers were more than capable of climbing out. They came into Sunday with 33 total runs scored this series.
Two sacrifice flies in the sixth finally tied the game at three, turning it into a three-inning game.
The Tigers had other chances, too. In the first inning they had the bases loaded with only one out as Keefer grounded into a 6-4-3 double play — an early opportunity wasted.
“You can’t play like you played last night and then turn around and have a game like we had today,” Bieser said. “It was just flat, for whatever reason, and I would say it didn’t start off flat. I mean, we load the bases, and for whatever reason, we weren’t able to endure nine innings.”
After the sixth inning, Missouri was unable to get anything cooking on offense. Not a single ball left the infield as the Omaha bullpen slammed the door to back up an overall solid outing by Edina, Minnesota native Richie Holetz.
Bieser also touched on the lack of a plan many Tiger hitters had at the plate today.
“It looked like we got a little antsy, and we lost some of our approach, and the stuff that we’ve been pretty good at all weekend was really staying consistent with our approach,” Bieser said. “I think … we got out of our approach and just got overly aggressive.”
Missouri will need to have a quick memory as they head south to Frisco, Texas. Thursday night they will take on Dallas Baptist in the first of four games in the Frisco College Baseball Classic, where the Tigers hope the warm weather will revitalize their offensive firepower.
_Edited by Jack Soble | jsoble@themaneater.com_
