In its first series of the 2021 season, Missouri baseball dropped three out of four games on the road to Grand Canyon University, with all three losses coming by four runs or more.
The momentum the Tigers built to end the shortened 2020 season didn’t carry over after the 11-month hiatus as Missouri played from behind nearly the entire weekend.
“We have a lot of work to do and a long way to go based on our performance this week,” Missouri coach Steve Bieser said.
While it’s not time to hit the panic button yet, Bieser knows the team needs to perform significantly better if it wants to compete for a spot in the NCAA Baseball Tournament
###Slow starts plague momentum###
Grand Canyon left Missouri in the dust from the first pitch.
By the fourth inning of each game, the Lopes jumped out to a multi-run lead, and the Tigers only recovered from it to take the lead once. GCU often hit the Tigers with a flurry of runs in the middle innings to put each comeback effort out of reach.
Missouri’s failure to establish an upper hand came from both on the mound and at the plate. The latest that Grand Canyon scored its first run was the second inning, while the Tigers struggled to string hits together.
Slow starts aren’t necessarily a bad thing when the pitching staff holds up its end of the bargain. But when neither side of the team can manufacture something to give the club some life, small leads can balloon into big ones in a heartbeat.
###Struggles with run production###
Home runs are never a bad thing. In fact, any baseball fan, casual or hardcore, will tell you a home run is a very good thing.
Missouri showed prowess in the long ball department with four homers over the weekend. The heart of the order — senior infielder Brandt Belk, redshirt sophomore corner infielder Luke Mann and senior catcher Chad McDaniel — all launched a pitch over the right field fence.
But when a team relies on its players hitting the ball 300-plus feet instead of creating runs by slapping singles or extra base hits, the offense suffers as a result.
More often than not, when Missouri scored, it was on a home run or a GCU putout. In its losses, the Tigers averaged less than a hit per inning and scored more often from sacrifice flies or fielder’s choices than reaching base safely.
A small sample size can be deceiving, but Missouri’s inability to string runs together could make life difficult when scoring opportunities are hard to come by.
###Lack of quick innings###
1-2-3 innings were few and far between for the Missouri rotation throughout its opening series.
The Lopes put together 33 half innings worth of offense over the weekend and put a runner on base with fewer than two outs in 25 of them.
Sophomore starter Spencer Miles got one out before he gave up three consecutive hits and a walk. Bieser brought in sophomore righty Ben Pedersen, who walked three batters, hit one and allowed four earned runs of his own before the inning’s conclusion.
Innings usually snowballed as the Lopes scored in bunches and the Tigers struggled to find the relatively wide strike zone.
If this isn’t Missouri shaking off the rust and this trend continues into mid-March, the Tigers will be in for a long conference slate against some of the best teams in the country.
###Not aggressive enough in two-strike counts###
With Grand Canyon already four runs ahead, the heart of the Tigers’ order came to the plate in the top of the ninth with a chance to make the game appear closer than it was. Instead, it concluded with senior middle infielder Mark Vierling, McDaniel and Mann all going down looking on a curveball.
Whether it was the wide strike zone from all three umpires or early season jitters, many Missouri batters walked back to the dugout after watching a third strike blow by them.
Between Friday night and Saturday afternoon, Missouri struck out 23 times — 11 of those instances where GCU caught a hitter looking.
Missouri’s on-base percentage in two-strike counts was far from horrendous, but to go down without swinging so often in those first two games is a troubling sign trend that needs to be nipped in the bud.
###Underclassmen pitchers get their time to shine###
Before the series, Bieser said that underclassmen pitchers would receive plenty of opportunities.
He followed through on that promise as Missouri gave eight freshmen or sophomores opportunities to pitch over the weekend.
Miles, a sophomore right hander, began the underclassmen trend with his season-opener start on Friday. The Rock Bridge High School product looked primed for a quality start through five innings, with only three earned runs before the flood gates opened with one out in the sixth.
After he pulled Miles, Bieser went with right-handers Pedersen and Holden Phelps as well as southpaw Brenner Maloney in the 11-3 loss.
Bieser put his trust in freshman right-hander Zach Hise to clinch Missouri’s lone win of the weekend in the nightcap of Saturday’s doubleheader.
After Spencer Juergens gave up a two-run home run to Lopes leadoff hitter Juan Colato, Hise entered an 8-7 ballgame with the 2-3-4 hitters due up.
He allowed just a single and struck out a batter to end the inning. After Missouri got an insurance run in the ninth, Bieser sent Hise back out for another inning of work, which he took care of in short order.
_Edited by Kyle Pinnell | kpinnell@themaneater.com_
