For a game against a 1-9 team out of the Great West, the Missouri baseball team’s Tuesday night affair was a surprisingly close affair. The Tigers had to come back from not one, but two deficits to knock off the Fighting Sioux.
They did not make the same mistakes Wednesday, scoring runs right and left in a 21-5 victory at Taylor Stadium.
“I thought if we could get ahead early, it would be a lot easier than waiting around, like we did yesterday,” junior right fielder Blake Brown said. “It definitely showed today. We put up a few early, then a few more, and they laid down, pretty much.”
The Tigers (10-5) teed off on North Dakota pitching with little mercy, scoring 20 runs for the first time since the 2010 season for a final score of 21-5. The win was the team’s eighth in a row, putting their record at 10-5.
Missouri wasted no time tallying runs. After junior outfielder Brannon Champagne and junior shortstop Eric Garcia both walked, senior third baseman Conner Mach launched a 3-2 pitch beyond the left field bullpen for a three-run homer, his first of the year.
There were still no outs in the first inning.
The Tigers continued the bombardment, scoring 20 runs in the first five frames. Junior right fielder Blake Brown hit two home runs, a rocket line drive in the second inning and long, high shot to left-center in the fifth. He is tied for the team lead with four on the season.
Mach also put on a show at the plate. A long double to left field, a sacrifice fly and a sharp single to center field, as well as his home run, gave him a 3-for-3 day with five RBIs. He is tied with Brown for the team lead in RBIs with 15.
“I think it’s mostly all approach,” he said of his success. “My swing’s usually pretty consistent, it’s just a matter of looking for pitches that I’m going to get.”
Freshman Brandon Platts, a 13th round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011, got his first career start for the Tigers. Platts displayed a solid arsenal of pitches, with a lively fastball and a sharp-breaking curve, and struck out four North Dakota batters.
But the Fighting Sioux hit Platts around for four runs in the third inning and he was yanked with two outs for redshirt freshman Ryan Yuengel.
“(There was) the bunt base hit, and then a fly ball that would have been an out on most nights, and then he lost focus,” coach Tim Jamieson said of Platts. “He needed to stop the bleeding by just working one hitter at a time.”
The Missouri relief staff did its job, though, with five different pitchers allowing just one more run.
The Tigers enter this weekend’s three game series against High Point riding an eight-game winning streak. The Panthers are also carrying some momentum into Columbia, having won six of their last eight games.
“We definitely can’t take them lightly,” Mach said. “They’re going to be a good team, they’re going to come out here and fight…(we’ve) got to keep the same mentality, come out with a lot of energy and jump on them early.”
