April 14, 2000
The Missouri Tigers (22-13, 8-7) will put a modest two-game winning streak on the line this weekend against the Nebraska Cornhuskers (23-11, 10-8) who have won five in a row, including a three-game sweep of Kansas last weekend, and a 6-3 triumph over nationally ranked Creighton on Tuesday. Friday's game at Taylor Stadium at Simmons Field starts at 7 p.m., followed by a 5 p.m. Saturday contest and a 1 p.m. Sunday game. It's Black-and-Gold Weekend in Columbia, with the football spring game at 2 p.m., Saturday. Fans holding tickets to the football game will be admitted free to the baseball contest that follows. Nebraska has climbed into a fifth-place tie in the Big 12 Conference standings, a game-and-a-half ahead of the seventh-place Tigers.
Series Record
Missouri leads Nebraska, 127-88-1, and took two-of-three games from the Huskers last year in Lincoln. MU dropped the opener, 8-7, then won the next two games by scores of 7-1 and 9-7. Mizzou has won six in a row over Nebraska in Columbia, holds a 14-6 mark against the Huskers at home during the 1990s, and is 10-3 in the series since the advent of the Big 12 Conference.
Missouri Coach Tim Jamieson
MU Head Coach Tim Jamieson has firmly established himself as one of the top young coaches in college baseball. In his sixth year, "T.J." has led Missouri to a 184-130 record, which includes three postseason conference tournaments, a trip to the NCAA Tournament, and a regular-season Big Eight title. Jamieson's Tigers are 165-96 since '96, and have won at least 30 games in each of the last four seasons.
Tigers Heating Up For Stretch Run
Missouri has won eight of its last 11 games, and 13 of its last 18 since opening the season with a 9-8 record. At 22-13, Missouri is nine games over .500 for the second time this season.
Mizzou Beats Southwest Missouri State
The Missouri Tigers scored five runs in the fourth inning Wednesday night - two of them on a two-run home run by Nick Wilfong - and went on to a 6-0 victory over the Southwest Missouri State Bears, spoiling their debut at Price Cutter Park in Ozark. Ryan Stegall, the Big 12's leading hitter, started the uprising with a triple to right center, and scored on an infield hit by Landon Brandes. Wilfong then delivered his team-leading sixth home run over the scoreboard in right field. After two outs, freshman Dan Bane walked. Luke Cassis doubled to score Bane, and Jayce Tingler singled home Cassis. Mizzou (22-13) scored its other run in the sixth on a leadoff triple by Mike Rallo and a sacrifice fly by Jon Williams. Jon Harris (3-3) was the Tigers' winning pitcher. He allowed just two hits and struck out eight in four innings of work. Drew Endicott and Mitch Kiler followed Harris to the mound. The trio combined for Missouri's second shutout of the season, scattering five hits, while striking out 13 Bears and walking just two.
Mizzou's Position In The Big 12 Race
Having won three of its five Big 12 Conference series, the Missouri Tigers are in seventh place in the league standings with a league mark of 8-7. Only two-and-a-half games, though, separate second-place Baylor (12-6) and seventh-place MU (8-7). The top eight teams advance to the Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Tournament, May 17-21, in Oklahoma City. Missouri, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Texas Tech are the only teams that have advanced to the Big 12 Post-Season Tournament each season since the formation of the conference in 1997. Missouri has gone 1-4 on Big 12 Fridays, 2-3 on Saturdays, and 5-0 on Sundays. Last season, Mizzou went 11-4 down the stretch in the Big 12 race. Here's what each of the Big 12 teams have remaining in league play:
MISSOURI - Nebraska, Kansas State, at Oklahoma, at Texas A&M
TEXAS - at Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M, Nebraska
BAYLOR - Iowa State, at Texas, Kansas, at Kansas State
TEXAS TECH - Texas, at Kansas, Oklahoma, at Oklahoma State
OKLAHOMA - at Kansas, Oklahoma State, at Texas Tech, Missouri, at Iowa State
NEBRASKA - at Missouri, Texas A&M, Iowa State, at Texas
TEXAS A&M - at Oklahoma State, at Nebraska, Texas, Missouri
OKLAHOMA STATE - Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Iowa State, Texas Tech
KANSAS - Oklahoma, Texas Tech, at Baylor, at Kansas State
IOWA STATE - at Baylor, Kansas State, at Nebraska, at Oklahoma State, Oklahoma
KANSAS STATE - at Iowa State, at Missouri, Kansas, Baylor
MU-SLU 'Wood Bat Game' To Be Played At Minor League Park
Missouri's April 25 game against St. Louis U. has been moved from SLU's Billiken Sports Center to the T. R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, Mo. - home of the minor league River City Rascals. The stadium has 2,950 permanent seats and hillside/grass seating for an additional 2,200 fans. The game will be a unique experience for players from both teams as the game will be played with wood bats, provided by Rawlings Sporting Goods - a St. Louis company. Plans are to make one of each season's two Missouri-St. Louis games a "wood bat" game at the T. R. Hughes facility in O'Fallon.
Mizzou Boasts Big 12's Top Underclassmen
Missouri has the top-hitting freshman and sophomore in the Big 12 Conference. Jayce Tingler's .369 batting average ranks him ninth in the league while second-year man Ryan Stegall leads the league both in all games (.415) and in conference-only play (.470). Both, though, had hitting streaks come to an end over the weekend. Tingler's came to a close at 15 games on Saturday, while Stegall, who was 6-for-9 in the first two games against Baylor, went 0-for-4 on Sunday to end his streak at 11 games. Tingler and Stegall, however, heated up again on Wednesday. Each had a pair of hits in Mizzou's 6-0 at SW Missouri. Stegall's were a double and a triple. Junior centerfielder Nick Wilfong has the longest active streak for Mizzou - 12 games.
Stegall Making A Case For 'Player-of-the-Year' Honors
Sophomore Ryan Stegall's hot hitting has boosted him into the Big 12 Conference lead, both for all games and in conference games only. He's hitting .415 for the season, and has hit safely in 30 of Mizzou's 35 games. In league play, he's hitting .470. Stegall has 31 hits in Big 12 games, and by comparison, only four other Tigers have as many as 31 hits for the entire season. Stegall had a 11-game hitting streak come to an end last Sunday, but he knocked a pair of extra-base hits on Wednesday at Southwest Missouri State, and has hit safely in 21 of the last 23 games. In that stretch Stegall has a .447 batting average. He also owns the league lead in doubles (17, two away from moving into Mizzou's season top-10) and hits (59). In other categories, Stegall is tied for third in triples (3), third in runs batted in (43), tied for second in total bases (94), and fourth in saves (9). On the mound as the Tigers' closer, Stegall has tied the MU season record of nine set by Jeff Cornell in 1978. He suffered the first "blown-save" of his career in Friday's 6-4 loss to nationally ranked Baylor. His nine saves already have him tied for sixth place on the MU career list, and rank him tied for fifth in the latest NCAA Division I statistical rankings. Stegall set a Missouri and Big 12 Conference record March 1 by driving in six runs in the first inning against Western Illinois. The old conference mark was five by Iowa State's Matt Nordby against Northern Iowa last season. His first time at bat, he hit a three-run home run to right-center field. As MU batted around (the Tigers sent 14 men to the plate in the inning), Stegall came up again with the bases loaded and cleared them with a 3-run double.
Tingler Looks Like Big 12's Best Freshman
Jayce Tingler (Smithville, MO) had a 15-game hitting streak come to an end last Saturday, but he was all over the bases during Mizzou's weekend series against nationally ranked Baylor - scoring five runs in the three games, including the tying run during MU's ninth-inning rally on Sunday. He had two hits and was plunked by a pitch on Wednesday at SW Missouri State. During the last 18 games, Tingler has hit .373 (25-of-67), walked 16 times and scored 20 runs. He's one of only two rookies among the Big 12's top 20 hitters, and stands ninth for all games with an average of .369. Earlier this season, he was the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week after enjoying the finest week of his young career with a .500 average (11-for-22) as the Tigers went 3-2 and completed the week with a 5-3 victory over the No. 4 Texas Longhorns. The rookie scored six runs, drove in six more, and was 3-for-3 in the stolen base department. He also threw out a Texas runner at home and made a diving, game-saving catch in Sunday's win. Entering the Texas series, Tingler reached base in 11-of-12 at bats - including a streak of nine straight spanning the final Texas Tech contest and both games against Western Illinois.
Kiler Has Become Setup Man Extrordinaire
Junior lefthander Mitch Kiler would be a prize closer for many teams, but at MU he has made his mark this season as a steady setup man for closer Ryan Stegall. Kiler had his longest stint of the season last Sunday, working the final three-and-two-thirds innings against Baylor. He held the Bears to four hits and one run in earning his second victory of the season. On Wednesday, he retired all four men he faced, two of them on strikeouts. Kiler has the lowest ERA on the staff, 3.00. In conference action, he's 2-0 with a 3.07 ERA. He also has an excellent ratio of 35 strikeouts to eight walks. Missouri has relied heavily on its bullpen, since Tiger pitchers have yet to record a complete game. Mizzou's bullpen squad has worked 132.1 innings with a 3.95 earned run average while allowing 131 hits and 75 runs (58 earned), with 135 strikeouts and 61 walks. The relievers most called upon are Kiler (18 appearances), Ryan Stegall (15), Drew Endicott (13), P.J. McGinnis (12), Matt Hobbs (11), and Ralph McCasland (9).
Never On Sunday Against Pete Sansone
Righthander Pete Sansone is 4-0 and all four of his victories have come on Sundays - three of them in Big 12 Conference play (against Texas, Kansas and Iowa State). He took a no-decision in two other Sunday encounters - at Texas Tech and Sunday against Baylor - games Mizzou eventually won. At Iowa State two weeks ago, Sansone pitched a career-long eight innings. He scattered seven hits and struckout eight, while allowing two runs and two walks. For a couple of weeks now, Coach Tim Jamieson has tinkered with the notion of moving Sansone to the Saturday position in the conference rotation. That will become a reality this week against Nebraska, as Jon Harris re-enters the rotation. Since he threw 57 pitches on Wednesday, Harris will start the Sunday tilt on three days rest.
Wilfong Delivers In Clutch To Beat Baylor, Homers At SMS
Centerfielder Nick Wilfong, who has a .754 slugging percentage in Big 12 Conference play, used a bunt to beat the Baylor Bears last Sunday. With runners on first-and-third with two outs in the ninth inning and the score tied, 8-8, Wilfong bunted the first pitch from Bears' ace reliever Zane Carlson. The surprising move caught Baylor third sacker Mark Saccomano off guard and his momentary indecision allowed Wilfong to arrive safely at first base while J.R. Warner was scoring the winning run. He continued as a big game hunter on Wednesday, helping slay another bunch of Bears - those from Southwest Missouri State. His two-run homer during a five-run fourth inning propelled Mizzou to a 6-0 victory. Wilfong is hitting .410 in 12 Big 12 Conference games - fifth in the league - but just .197 in non-league action. He owns a 12-game hitting streak during which he's hit .356 (with three doubles, a triple, three home runs, 14 RBI and five stolen bases. Four of his six home runs have come against Big 12 opponents.
Tigers Play Plenty Of Close Games
Missouri is 11-6 in games this season that were decided by one or two runs. MU is 7-2 in one-run games and 4-4 in two-run affairs. Mizzou has also played four three-run games.
Many Happy Returns For Landon Brandes
Third baseman Landon Brandes missed nine games with a broken bone in his left hand before returning to action against Central Missouri State on March 28. Since his return, he's hit .476 (10-for-21), with 10 RBI. On Sunday, Brandes went 3-for-4 in Mizzou's 9-8 win over Baylor, with five RBI. He hit a two-run home run in the first inning and singled home the tying run in the ninth. On Wednesday, Brandes was 2-for-4 with another run-scoring hit. In Brandes' absence, MU went 7-2, thanks largely to Kurt Propst who filled in at third base. Propst started seven of those games and hit .286, with three doubles, a home run and four RBIs.
Around The Bases
? MU's pitchers are piling up the strikeouts. Tiger pitchers have fanned 291 opposing batters this season and have issued 139 walks (2.09:1). Fourteen times this season they've had 10-or-more strikeouts, including 10 of MU's last 19 games.
? Missouri has hit into 40 double plays this season, while turning just 17. Last Friday, the Tigers turned two double plays in the same game for the first time this season.
? Missouri has hit back-to-back home runs three times this season - Ryan Stegall and Jon Williams vs. Pepperdine in the first game of the season, Nick Wilfong and Williams in the third game against Kansas, and J.R. Warner and Ryan Stegall in last week's series-opener vs. Baylor.
? Missouri's 5-game winning streak earlier this season is its longest of the season, and longest since the Tigers won six in a row between April 24 and May 8 last year. During the streak, MU hit .292 as a team and posted a 3.60 earned run average.
? Four of junior southpaw Ralph McCasland's six victories have come in relief appearances during Mizzou's last 16 games. A couple of rocky starting appearances still have him saddled with a 6.87 earned run average - highest on the staff - but in his relief role, his ERA is 3.05. Out of the pen, McCasland has pitched 17.2 innings, allowing 20 hits, 7 runs (6 earned), with five walks and 18 strikeouts.
? Ryan Stegall and J.R. Warner have started all 35 games for the Tigers.
? Missouri's starting outfield of LF Jayce Tingler, CF Nick Wilfong and RF J.R. Warner have combined for a .983 fielding percentage and each has made only one error. Warner has five assists this season and Tingler three.
? W.T. Hoover has delivered pinch hits in his last two plate appearances. He hit a home run in the ninth inning on Saturday, and delivered a single during a three-run eighth inning on Sunday.
? Luke Cassis' home run last Sunday was his first in 127 career at bats and was his only hit in the series.
? Wes Fewell has a seven-game hitting streak and has raised his average as Mizzou's designated hitter to .317.
? C Ryan Pickett was honored at MU's basketball game against Oklahoma State as one of Mizzou's three Bank of America Community Champions.
? Missouri's first Big 12 Conference series at the new Taylor Stadium at Simmons Field against Texas drew nearly 2,600 spectators to the ballpark, and last weekend's dedication series against Baylor drew 2,580 in less-than-idea weather conditions.