The Missouri baseball team’s unlikely run to its first-ever Big 12 Conference championship in its final time competing in the league’s tournament had an equally improbable ending: a single by the opposing team.
With the Tigers leading 8-7 and Oklahoma Sooners runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth Sunday afternoon in Oklahoma City, Okla., the Sooners’ Chase Simpson singled to right field. But the ball ricocheted off base runner Caleb Bushyhead, ending the game even though Dusty Dishman was trying to score.
A raucous, ecstatic celebration on the field and customary Gatorade shower for coach Tim Jamieson followed. Missouri, which will officially become a member of the Southeastern Conference on July 1, had departed the Big 12 in style.
It was this Missouri team, one that entered the tournament following a tumultuous 27-26 overall record, that would ensure the school’s final Big 12 sporting competition ended with a trophy.
“We got rid of a lot of demons,” Jamieson said in a news release. “Big 12 demons, and then also we’ve had a hard time putting Oklahoma away over the years. It’s a great feeling.”
Beating the Sooners, who swept Missouri in a three-game series earlier in the season, was only one of the many ways the Tigers beat the odds to win the championship.
They beat higher-seeded opponents Texas and Texas A&M and whipped Kansas. The Jayhawks had taken a 2-1 series win against Missouri to close out the regular season.
The Tigers also overcame their season-long pitching struggles that landed them seventh in the conference in earned run average, compiling a 2.73 team ERA in the tournament.
In fact, each aspect of Missouri’s game seemed to fall into place in the tournament: the .359 team batting average was best in the tournament and junior shortstop Eric Garcia’s .500 batting average and five runs scored earned him the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player designation.
“All up and down the lineup, we’ve been able to hit the ball really well,” Garcia said in a news release. “Fortunately, I got kind of hot toward the end.”
Garcia helped lead the Tigers’ hitting attack Sunday with his 2-for-4 game. The team scored four runs in the first inning, knocking Oklahoma’s starter Damien Magnifico out of the game, having recorded only one out.
Three more runs in the top of the fifth gave Missouri a 7-1 lead. Senior catcher Ben Turner had two RBIs and sophomore designated hitter Michael McGraw hit three singles.
The Sooners then got seven runs off sophomore Rob Zastryzny and senior Jeff Emens to tie the game at seven in the bottom of the sixth.
Dane Opel grounded into a double play with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to score junior center fielder Blake Brown for the game’s decisive run.
Missouri’s up-and-down season gave extra meaning to the conference title, Jamieson said.
“It’s special in so many different ways because we’ve struggled this year,” he said in the release. “We had a lot of ups and downs. But you knew it was there, and they came together at the right time.”
The win means Missouri will advance to NCAA regional play, its eighth appearance in the last 10 years and its first since 2009. The Tigers’ venue will be announced 11 a.m. Monday.
