Wednesday, February 21
Coral Gables, Fla.
5 p.m. (CT)
University of Missouri
at
Miami (Fla.)
@MizzouBaseball Continues Season-Opening Road Trip at Miami
2/19/2018 3:08:00 PM | Baseball
Mizzou set to play an ACC foe for the first time since 2014
- Mizzou Baseball will continue its eight-game, 11-day road trip to Florida this Wednesday (Feb. 21) as it heads to Coral Gables, Fla., for a stand-alone game with ACC foe Miami. First pitch is at 5 p.m. (CT) on KTGR with Tex Little and Matt Michaels on the call.
- Mizzou and Miami are playing for the first time since meeting in the 2008 Coral Gables NCAA Regional. The 'Çanes won that game, 6-5. Mizzou had a pair of future big leaguers pitch in that game. LHP Rick Zagone started the game for Mizzou and went 4.1 innings, surrendering five runs on seven hits over the first three innings. Mizzou then threw big leaguer Nick Tepesch for 2.2 innings as it attempted to rally from down 5-0. He limited the Hurricanes to just one hit over those innings as Mizzou rallied to tie the game at 5-5 with three runs in the fifth and two more in the eighth. But Miami scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning off of current Minnesota Twin Kyle Gibson, coming on a Yasmani Grandal RBI single with one out. Columbia, Mo., native Blake Tekotte had two RBIs and scored a run while going 1-for-5 for Miami in that game.
- Mizzou will start junior RHP Brian Sharp in what will be his first start in 29 career appearances. Last year, he went 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA in nine appearances.
- Miami is sending senior LHP Mike Mediavilla to the mound. We went 4-5 with a 4.45 ERA in 16 appearances last year and has tossed 1.0 shutout inning this season.
- Mizzou is coming off its third consecutive weekend series win as it took two of three from host Florida International last weekend in Miami. Mizzou scored a pair of runs on wild pitches in the ninth inning Friday (Feb. 16) to earn an opening-day win. Mizzou then exploded for 22 runs on 21 hits, both the most for a Tiger team in nearly a year, in a 22-1 win Saturday (Feb. 17). Mizzou took a 5-2 lead in the top of the fifth inning in Sunday's contest (Feb. 18) but FIU rallied with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and five more in the eighth to prevent a Mizzou sweep.
- The series win marked the first time since 2012 that Mizzzou won a true road series to open a campaign. That year, Mizzou took two of three from eventual SEC foe Auburn during its final year in the Big 12.
- Miami is coming off of a 2-1 series win as well, taking two of three from Rutgers in Coral Gables last weekend. Like Mizzou, the 'Çanes won the first two games of the series, 7-2 Friday and 8-5 Saturday. Rutgers won the Sunday contest, 7-5.
- This season marks the third consecutive season that Mizzou has opened the season in the state of Florida. Mizzou is 12-4 in 16 first- or second-week games in the Sunshine State over those three seasons.
- Mizzou and Miami come from arguably the top two college baseball conferences in the America - the SEC and ACC. All-time, Mizzou has played 18 games against nine ACC teams in the history of the program. Mizzou holds a 4-14 all-time record against ACC schools. The Tigers have never played Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame or Virginia. The last time Mizzou played an ACC school was in 2014, dropping a 1-0 decision at Wake Forest.
- It has been well-documented that Mizzou has a large influx of newcomers on this year's roster. During the opening weekend of action, Mizzou played 12 of its 21 newcomers - six pitchers and six position players - last weekend. The largest contingent of newcomers appears to be in Mizzou's bullpen as all six pitchers that made Mizzou debuts last weekend did so out of the Tiger 'pen.
- Sophomore 1B/OF Kameron Misner had an unbelievable opening weekend as he appears to be one of college baseball's breakout stars in 2018. Despite FIU pitching around him all weekend (nine walks over the three games with two intentional passes), he hit .500 with two homers, a double and a triple off the top of the wall while driving in six runs and scoring five more. He also stole a pair of bases in the series. Below are some notable rankings for Misner in the SEC following week one:
- Slugging - 1st - 1.625
- HRs - 1st - 2
- Walks - 1st - 9
- Triples - 1st - 1
- OBP - 2nd - .765
- Steals - 3rd - 2
- Total Bases - 3rd - 13
- RBI - 4th - 6
- Batting - 9th - .500
PROJECTED STARTERS
- Wednesday: RHP Brian Sharp (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs. LHP Michael Mediavilla (0-0, 0.0 ERA)
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