There was an invigorated vibe at Taylor Stadium on Sunday afternoon, as a crowd of 881 in attendance witnessed Missouri baseball win Sunday’s series finale against the Illinois-Chicago Flames on a walk-off home run off the bat of freshman Kameron Misner.
Junior Andy Toelken took the ball for the Tigers to start the contest Sunday in his third start of the season. Toelken worked himself into trouble early on, surrendering a pair of runs and laboring through 26 pitches in the first inning.
UIC starting pitcher Reid Birlingmair quieted the Tigers’ bats early as Missouri was held hitless until the bottom of the third inning. Tigers first baseman Brian Sharp would launch his first career home run in the bottom of the fourth.
Toelken settled in through the middle innings, but in the top of the fifth, he surrendered a home run that put UIC up 5-4. Toelken would finish with 4 1/3 innings pitched, five hits, three earned runs and three strikeouts, throwing a total of 77 pitches.
The Tigers would surrender back-to-back home runs in the fifth inning that put UIC up 6-3.
With the team in need of a rally in the sixth, junior third baseman Alex Samples led off with a single. Sharp followed with a double down the left field foul line that drove in two Tigers to cut UIC’s lead to 6-5.
The Tigers put up a strong offensive frame in the seventh inning, producing a whopping five runs off five hits, culminating in right fielder Trey Harris’ first home run of the season that put the Tigers ahead 10-6.
After UIC trimmed Missouri’s lead to 10-8, Sharp moved to the pitcher’s mound for the Tigers. UIC would take the lead on a fly ball that found a gap in the Tigers’ outfield and score a pair of runs after Connor Brumfield’s throw was unable to reach catcher Brett Bond in time. The hit tied the game at 10.
After two scoreless frames, Misner was the first up to bat in the ninth. Misner was quiet on the day. Entering the at-bat, he was 0-4 in his previous plate appearances, including two strikeouts. This at-bat, he was in no mood to wait; on a 2-0 count, Misner took a big swing at a fastball and crushed it over the right field fence for a walk-off home run that gave the Tigers the victory.
“I’ve never had a walk-off hit in my career, all the way back to T-ball,” Misner said. “It’s kind of a feeling that you can’t describe.”
Misner’s teammates and coach were just as energized for his game-winning hit.
“To see Kam hit that home run was way more exciting than mine,” Harris said. “The way we played this weekend was so fun, even better when it’s with people that you care about.”
“There was a lot of emotions going on with that game,” coach Steve Bieser said. “The best thing was our resiliency throughout this game, and we put ourselves in a position to win.”
The 10-1 start is the best in program history since the Tigers reached the same record in the 1985 season. This is the first time since 2012 that they have reached a double-digit win streak.
**Up next*
This week, the Tigers will continue their homestand with a pair of weekday games. They welcome the Eastern Illinois Panthers on Tuesday afternoon, and on Wednesday, they’ll host the Western Carolina Catamounts. Both games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m., leading up to a weekend series against the Appalachian State Mountaineers. Bieser hinted that the lesser-used arms of the pitching staff will likely see action in the weekday games.
“We’ve got a day off Monday, and we’ve got a group of guys with good arms who are hungry to pitch, and we’ll see what they’ve got on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Beiser said.
These out-of-conference games are crucial to Missouri as Southeastern Conference play looms. For momentum’s sake and for the sake of possible postseason tournament selection, the Tigers will need as many wins as possible in their out-of-conference schedule. Missouri opens up SEC play with a road series at Alabama from March 17-19.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_
