In Missouri baseball’s 2016 home opener, Tigers redshirt sophomore righthander Ryan Lee (W, 1–1) brought his best stuff. The Grandview, Missouri, native fired 11 consecutive strikes to open the game and did not look back. Mizzou used Lee’s dominant outing, plus a little help from the bullpen, to secure a 2–0 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, on Wednesday afternoon.
Lee commanded the strike zone early and often and showed an efficient, aggressive approach on the mound.
“I struggled throwing a lot of balls in my first outing, so finding the zone against an aggressive team was a good start,” Lee said.
Lee said he prepared somewhat differently for this start after he struggled in his first appearance, a loss to Seton Hall in which he allowed three runs in a shade over two innings. He threw more flat grounds and bullpens than he normally would in between starts.
Lee had to keep the Golden Lions at bay as Mizzou struggled at the plate, likely somewhat due to the chilly temperatures. Trey Harris (1 for 4, RBI) had a nice piece of hitting, drilling a grounder to the right side to score the game’s first run, but the Tigers wouldn’t get much more than that. Brian Sharp (2 for 3, RBI), who later appeared on the mound, collected an RBI single in the fourth following a Shane Benes (1 for 3, 2B, R) two-bagger into the left field corner. However, the Tigers recorded just five hits in the game.
“It’s frustrating that we gave bats away, but we did hit some balls hard,” coach Tim Jamieson said. “Fortunately, we didn’t have to score a lot of runs today.”
Courtesy of Lee’s outing, those two runs were enough. He worked into the seventh inning before Pine Bluff put runners on the corners with one out. Lee said he had the endurance to go a few more innings, but reiterated that Jamieson made a good call hooking him at that point in the game.
“(Jamieson) had a good string today,” Lee said. “I’m happy with my performance, but I think he pulled me at the right time.”
Freshman southpaw Ty Shoaff entered and picked up a big strikeout, but then walked the next batter to load the bases. Jamieson strode to the mound again and brought on redshirt sophomore righthander Cole Bartlett on to preserve the lead. On his first pitch, Bartlett induced Golden Lions third baseman Aderly Perez into a harmless fly out to right to end the threat.
Bartlett then worked around a leadoff single in the eight to send the Tigers to the ninth with a two-run advantage and Sharp (SV, 2) shut it down with a 1-2-3 frame to close it out.
“We put up nine zeros,” Jamieson said. “That’s a good combined effort.”
Mizzou will have Thursday off before beginning a four-game set against Illinois-Chicago Friday at 6 p.m. The Tigers are 7–3 all-time against the Flames, including a three-game sweep last season.
