Beaten and bruised, Missouri baseball sorely needed a win.
They’d had to bear the weight of being swept by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee over the weekend and were itching to get back on the field and make amends.
Missouri beat Truman St. 10-2 Tuesday night behind a platoon of young arms and a stellar night at the plate by Lester.
“We got a lot of weight off of our backs coming out and scoring ten runs,” junior Josh Lester said. “As a whole we’re going to be way more confident tomorrow than we were yesterday.”
Lester accounted for half of the team’s offensive output, racking up a career-high five RBIs on two doubles and a home run.
Freshman Bryce Montes De Oca threw a scoreless frame in his first action of the year, walking one and striking out one. He was one of seven Tigers pitchers to take the mound during the game.
Junior Austin Tribby turned in 2.0 innings of solid work, striking out a five of the six batters he faced. The five strikeouts were a career high for Tribby.
Senior Brett Peel led off the bottom of the first inning with a double, which extended his on-base streak to 13 games. He then stole third, giving him his team-leading 10th steal of the year. Junior Ryan Howard scored Peel on a sac fly to right field to give the Tigers the 1-0 advantage and get their offense rolling again.
“(When) we score in the first inning it takes a load off of everybody,” Lester said. “From there on everybody swung it well.”
After walking, Howard was almost caught stealing in the bottom of the third when Truman St. pitcher Nate Lukas fired to first instead of going home. Truman St. first basemen Paul Trenhaile bobbled the pick-off throw and Howard slid into second base safely. The Tigers made the most of the gift, as on the very next pitch Lester teed off on a high fastball from Lukas and sent it over the left field wall for his second home run of the season.
It wasn’t the first time Howard and Lester had combined to produce runs for the Tigers, and Coach Tim Jamieson said it couldn’t be last if the team is going to be successful this year.
“Lester and Howard are two of the most important guys in our lineup,” Jamieson said. “We’re going to struggle offensively if those guys don’t contribute offensively.”
Freshman Nolan Gromacki came in to relieve Lake Dabney in the top of the fourth inning and drilled Truman St. junior Blake Deaton on his very first pitch. Peel kept Deaton from coming around to score from second by making a great backhand pick and throw on a hard ground ball up the middle. His effort was for naught, though, as Deaton would score from third after freshman catcher Brett Bond watched a dribbler off the bat of Truman St.’s freshman catcher Wyatt Fones stay fair down the first base line.
Bond promptly redeemed his shoddy play in the field with a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth. Zach Lavy ripped a pitch from Lukas to the right field wall for second career triple and first of the season. Bond scored on the play and Lavy scored from third off of a Case Munson sac fly later in the inning.
Austin Tribby came in to pitch in the top of the fifth inning and retired the side, striking out two.
“Momentum is a big part of the game of baseball,” Tribby said. “I just try to throw up zeroes and give our guys as much momentum as we can get.”
The Tigers fed off of Tribby’s 1-2-3 fifth and loaded the bases for Bond in the bottom half. Bond collected an RBI on a sac fly to left field and runners advanced to second and third on an error by Deaton.
Tribby continued to dominate in the top of the sixth, striking out the heart of Truman St.’s lineup in order. 18 of Tribby’s 25 pitches were strikes.
“(Tribby) continues to evolve as a pitcher,” Jamieson said. “He’s got a really good changeup and slider that he didn’t have last year. That makes his fastball even better and gives him confidence overall.”
Jack Klages extended his on-base streak to seven consecutive games with a single in the bottom of the sixth. He added a steal to his statline after the throw from the catcher Fones bounced off his helmet as he slid in to second. Klages was stranded at second.
Montes De Oca got his first career strikeout against his first career batter when he struck out Fones to start the top of the seventh inning. He retired TJ Wood on a flyout to left, then walked Michael Venturella. After Venturella advanced to second on a passed ball, Bond ran out to the mound to check up on the young hurler.
“After I walked (Venturella), I started rush a bit,” Montes De Oca said. “But then I calmed down and got back to pitching.”
Montes De Oca settled down and put Adam Gregorich away on a lineout to left-center. The freshman sat at 96 mph throughout his outing, and was clocked at 98 mph on his last pitch. Montes de Oca said he topped 100 mph once in high school.
“We’ve all been waiting for him,” Tribby said. “I think he’s going to be a big part of our program this year and years upcoming. It was great to see him get out there and have success tonight.”
With the bases juiced in the bottom of the eight, Lester added three more runs the board with a double to deep right. That brought the Tigers run total to 10, which tied their offensive effort against University of Illinois-Chicago March 1st. That game was right before the team dropped three straight to Milwaukee, a dismal weekend Lester said is far behind them.
“There was no way we were going to swing it like we did the first couple weekends for the whole year,” he said. “We’re definitely going to score a lot more runs as a whole, and I think tonight was one of the first nights of a bunch coming.”
Mizzou baseball will be back in action Wednesday when they take on Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville at 6 p.m.
