In the Missouri baseball team’s Saturday doubleheader against the Charlotte 49ers at Taylor Stadium, the two games produced strikingly similar results. The Tigers overcame early leads and rode strong starting pitching performances to victories in both to extend their winning streak to six and run their record to 8-5. Missouri won the first game 5-3 and the second game 3-2.
In the first game, the Tigers parlayed a strong starting pitching performance by sophomore Rob Zastryzny to a 5-3 win.
Charlotte jumped to a 1-0 lead in the second inning. After a leadoff single, an error by senior third baseman Conner Mach put runners on first and second. Zastryzny had two outs and looked like he was about to get out of the inning, but an infield single scored the runner.
Missouri responded in the fourth, though, as singles by Mach and junior left fielder Dane Opel put two men on for the Tigers and set the table for junior shortstop Eric Garcia’s RBI single, tying the game at 1-1.
After Charlotte retook the lead with a run in the top of the fifth, Missouri took the lead for good with two in the bottom of the frame. A pair of errors by the 49ers, one that scored sophomore second baseman Dillon Everett, and Opel’s two-out RBI single gave the Tigers the decisive lead.
Missouri added two more runs and Charlotte notched one for a final score of 5-3. Junior designated hitter Scott Sommerfeld extended his team-best hitting streak to nine games with a single in the second inning.
Zastryzny recorded the win to move to 2-1 on the season. The sophomore lefty threw six innings, allowing five hits and one earned run while striking out three 49ers. Junior reliever Jake Walsh got the five-out save for the Tigers, his fourth of the season.
“When I go in, no one’s going to score on me,” he said. “When I go in and I see a close game of one or two runs, my energy level just shoots up. I just compete and give it more every time I get out there.”
The second game of the set strongly resembled the first. Charlotte took a 1-0 lead in the first inning off of junior lefty Blake Holovach when a walk to the three-hole hitter set up an RBI double from first baseman Justin Seager. But the Tigers would pounce back.
“The fact that we’re able to do it is (due to) character and the fact that the guys keep competing,” coach Tim Jamieson said about Missouri’s propensity to comebacks. “We don’t want to do it that often, though.”
After Mach was hit by 49ers starter Corey Roberts and moved to second by a hit and run, Sommerfeld singled to score Mach and lengthen his hitting streak to 10.
Missouri grabbed the decisive advantage in the fifth when Everett tripled and scored on junior center fielder Brannon Champagne’s groundout. Opel hit his fourth homer of the season, a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth, to extend the lead to 3-1.
The Tigers received another strong pitching performance from junior Blake Holovach. He threw 6.2 innings, only allowing two runs, to receive his second win of the season. Walsh locked down his second save of the day to improve his season total to five.
“My approach is to attack, that’s the kind of pitcher I am,” Holovach said. “Just go after them with my fastball. …I didn’t really have my offspeed today, so I just stuck to the fastball and painted the outside corner and it worked out.”
Missouri will wrap up its series against the 49ers at 3 p.m. Sunday.
