Missouri baseball was in dire straits going in Sunday’s doubleheader with Auburn. With a 5-14 record in the Southeastern Conference, the team was on the verge of not qualifying for the SEC Conference tournament in May.
Auburn was in a similar situation with a 7-12 conference record, sitting at the bottom of the Western division and needing more wins to be one of the 10 qualifying teams. And the visiting team had gained momentum over Missouri. Two days earlier, the Tigers lost 3-1 to Auburn, even though ace pitcher Rob Zastryzny struck out 11.
But with the odds against them, the Tigers were able to win both games in the doubleheader against Auburn, winning their second conference series of the season and improving their conference record to 7-14 and fifth in the Eastern division.
The biggest surprises from Sunday came from junior third baseman Shane Segovia.
Segovia had been struggling throughout the season to stay healthy. He pulled a hamstring during preseason training and suffered from back spasms during Missouri’s road series with Tennessee back in March. As a result his performance had suffered, with a career-low batting average of .145 that had slotted him dead last in the batting lineup.
Sunday was a different story. In the first game, Segovia kicked off the third inning with a single to right field. It would be the start of an inning where the Tigers would score all three of their runs, one of which came from Segovia.
In the second game Segovia went 2-for-2 with two RBIs. The pair of RBIs came during the fourth inning, when Segovia hit a single to right field that fell in between the gloves of the right fielder and second baseman, allowing junior second baseman Kendall Keeton and junior catcher Dylan Kelly to score.
Segovia was walking tall after the game.
“It builds confidence; that’s for sure,” Segovia said. “Throughout this whole year, I always saw there was some light at the end of the tunnel. What a coincidence that the sun came out today.”
He also said that it was confidence, not any change in his batting that led Sunday’s success.
“To tell you the truth, nothing was really a big change,” Segovia said. “Just coming out playing the game hard. It’s a big help when you hear your teammates keep on reminding you that it’s going to happen. Same thing from the arena and the coaching staff.”
Keaton Steele, who pitched all seven innings in game one and improving his record to a team best 4-2 record, was proud of his teammate.
“You’ve got days, and you’ve got bad days, and obviously Shane has had a couple of bad days,” Steele said. “He’s learned from them. We sit there and we talk and everyone’s picking him up. He came out here today and proved it.”
Coach Tim Jamieson said that he hopes Segovia’s improvement will carry over to the rest of the team.
“That’s kind of what we thought we’d get from him all year,” Jamieson said. “He’s been dealing with some injuries and some tough stretches. He got some timely hits and played really good defense for use. Hopefully we’ll see that from him from here on out.”
