April 20, 2000
The Missouri Tigers (23-16, 8-10) continue a seven-game homestand this weekend with a non-league series against the Cal State Northridge Matadors (16-24). Friday night's game begins at 7 p.m., followed by a 2 p.m. contest on Saturday and a 12 p.m. Easter Sunday series finale. The Tigers were swept last weekend by a hot Nebraska ballclub that has now won 10 games in a row and climbed into the national rankings for the first time this week. MU had not been swept by a league team in Columbia since Texas Tech did it in 1997. But MU righted itself on Tuesday, winning a 3-2 decision from the Kansas Jayhawks. The Matadors are on a 3-game winning streak, including a pair of wins over nationally ranked UCLA last weekend. Next week the Tigers will play the St. Louis U. Billikens at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon on Tuesday, and the Southwest Missouri State Bears in Columbia on Wednesday. Both games carry 7 p.m. starting times.
Series Records
Missouri and Cal State Northridge have not played before, but the Matadors have played two games against the Big 12's Oklahoma State Cowboys this season, dropping a pair of games last month. MU's only action against a California school this season was its opening series, when the Tigers lost at Pepperdine, 6-5 and 10-8. Northridge has also lost two to Pepperdine this season.
Missouri Coach Tim Jamieson
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 185-133 record, which includes four postseason conference tournaments, a trip to the NCAA Tournament ('96), and a regular-season Big Eight title ('96). Jamieson's Tigers are 166-99 since 1996, and have won at least 30 games in each of the last four seasons.
MU-SLU 'Wood Bat Game' To Be Played At Minor League Park
Next Tuesday's game against St. Louis U. has been moved from the Billiken Sports Center to the T. R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, Mo. - home of the minor league River City Rascals. The stadium can seat more than 5,000 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.
Tigers Play Plenty Of Close Games
Missouri is 12-6 in games decided by one or two runs. MU is 8-2 in one-run games and 4-4 in two-run affairs. Mizzou has also played four three-run games.
Tigers Trip Jayhawks With Run In The Ninth
Mike Rallo's single to center field with two outs in the ninth inning Tuesday night drove home Landon Brandes with the winning run enabling the Missouri Tigers to snap a three-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Kansas Jayhawks at Taylor Stadium at Simmons Field. Brandes, who hit his fifth home run of the season to give Mizzou (23-16) a 1-0 lead in the second inning, opened the ninth with a single to right center off of Kansas reliever Sam Gish. He moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Jon Williams and scored on Rallo's hit after Nick Wilfong had struck out. The victory was Missouri's fourth in a row against non-conference opponents, and gave it a 3-1 series edge against the Jayhawks this season. Kansas (21-21) had beaten nationally ranked Wichita State in its last two non-league affairs. The Tigers' ninth-inning heroics made a winner of Logan Dale (4-4), who allowed two hits and struck out four in three innings of relief. Drew Endicott pitched the first six innings for Missouri and left the game with the score tied 2-2. Gish pitched the ninth inning and was the loser (1-4). Brandes' home run was all that Missouri could muster off of Kansas starter Brandon O'Neal for seven innings. Kansas took a 2-1 lead in the sixth inning. John Nelson, who was 4-for-4 on the night, led off the inning with a single and stole his 30th base of the season. Doug Dreher drove him in with a single down the rightfield line but was thrown out at second base by MU rightfielder J.R. Warner. With two outs, Shane Wedd homered into the bullpen in leftfield. The Tigers tied the score in the bottom of the sixth when Ryan Stegall followed a walk to Jayce Tingler and a single by Warner with a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
Mizzou's Position In The Big 12 Race
Having won three of its six Big 12 Conference series, the Missouri Tigers are in eighth place in the league standings with a league mark of 8-10. Only three games separate Oklahoma (11-7), Oklahoma State (9-9), Texas A&M (10-11) and Mizzou. Kansas is lurking just behind the Tigers at 7-14. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State play each other this weekend in the "Bedlam Series" while the slumping Aggies visit the streaking Cornhuskers. The Tigers control their own destiny since they still have league series remaining with OU and Texas A&M - both on the road where the Tigers are 6-3 in the Big 12 this season (2-7 at home where they still have Kansas State). MU's three home series, though, have been against the league's top three teams - Texas, Baylor and Nebraska. 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 1-5 on Big 12 Fridays, 2-4 on Saturdays, and 5-1 on Sundays. Here's what each of the Big 12 teams have remaining in league play:
TEXAS - Baylor, Texas A&M, Nebraska
BAYLOR - at Texas, Kansas, at Kansas State
NEBRASKA - Texas A&M, Iowa State, at Texas
TEXAS TECH - at Kansas, Oklahoma, at Oklahoma State
OKLAHOMA - Oklahoma State, at Texas Tech, Missouri, at Iowa State
OKLAHOMA STATE - Oklahoma, Iowa State, Texas Tech
TEXAS A&M - at Nebraska, Texas, Missouri
MISSOURI - Kansas State, at Oklahoma, at Texas A&M
KANSAS - Texas Tech, at Baylor, at Kansas State
KANSAS STATE - at Iowa State, at Missouri, Kansas, Baylor
IOWA STATE - Kansas State, at Nebraska, at Oklahoma State, Oklahoma
Baseball America Touts Mizzou's Stegall, Tingler
The most recent issue of Baseball America features an All-America checklist, broken down by class, and two Missouri Tigers are prominently included. Sophomore Ryan Stegall, the Big 12 Conference's leading hitter (.408 overall, .462 in conference), is a second-team choice among the nation's sophomores both as a position player and as a relief pitcher. Jayce Tingler, the Big 12's hottest hitting freshman with a .373 batting average and a five-game hitting streak, is a second-team selection in the outfield. Both have had long hitting streaks this season - Tingler, 15 games, and Stegall, 11.
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 .408 for the season, and has hit safely in 33 of Mizzou's 39 games. In league play, he's hitting .462. Stegall has 36 hits in Big 12 games, and by comparison, only four other Tigers have as many as 36 hits for the entire season. Stegall has hit safely in 24 of the last 27 games with an average of .416 in that stretch. He also owns the league lead in doubles (19) and hits (64). In other categories, Stegall is tied for fifth in triples (3), tied for third in RBIs (46), second in total bases (104), and fourth in saves (9). On the national level, Stegall ranks 41st in batting average, tied for 9th in doubles, and tied for 11th in saves. 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 Mizzou'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 11th in the latest NCAA Division I statistical rankings. He has not pitched since April 7. 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) continues to have a remarkable debut season with the Tigers - one that should make him a leading candidate for the freshman-of-the-year in the Big 12. He's ninth in the league in hitting and during MU's last 21 games, he's hit .367. That period includes a team-best 15-game hitting streak. The little lefty is hitting a team-best .429 against left-handed pitchers, and also leads the club hitting .514 with runners in scoring position. 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 runner at home and made a diving, game-saving catch in Mizzou'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 Piles Up The Appearances
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 leads the MU pitching staff with 20 appearances this season - four away from moving into the Missouri season top-10. Kiler had his longest stint of the season a week ago, working the final three-and-two-thirds innings in a 9-8 victory over Baylor. He held the Bears to four hits and one run in earning his second victory of the season (2-1). Kiler's ERA is down to 2.91 overall, and 2.89 in Big 12 games. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is a staff-best 3.5:1 (38-11). In Kiler's last eight appearances, which starts with the series at Kansas, Kiler's ERA is 1.76 in 15.1 innings, with 14 strikeouts and five walks. For the season, lefthanders are hitting just .056 against him. Missouri has relied heavily on its bullpen all season, since Tiger pitchers have yet to record a complete game. Mizzou's bullpen squad has worked 148 innings with a 4.19 earned run average while allowing 156 hits and 87 runs (69 earned), with 148 strikeouts and 70 walks.
Around The Bases
? MU's pitchers are piling up the strikeouts. Tiger pitchers have fanned 321 opposing batters this season and have issued 159 walks. They've had 10-or-more strikeouts 14 times this season.
? Missouri has hit into 45 double plays this season, while turning just 23. The Tigers have turned two double plays in the same game only three times this season.
? Missouri has hit back-to-back home runs three times in 2000 - 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 the series-opener vs. Baylor.
? Ryan Stegall and J.R. Warner have started all 39 games for the Tigers.
? Missouri's starting outfield of LF Jayce Tingler, CF Nick Wilfong and RF J.R. Warner have combined for a .985 fielding percentage and each has made only one error. Warner has six assists this season, Tingler three and Wilfong one.
? W.T. Hoover has delivered pinch hits in his last two plate appearances - a home run and a single.
? Despite ranking in Missouri's career top 10 for home runs, Mike Rallo has not delivered a round-tripper this season.
? Luke Cassis' home run against Baylor was his first in 127 career at bats and was his only hit in the series. Since that blast, he's 3-for-15. Last Sunday against Nebraska, Cassis played third base for the first time in his career.
? 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.
? C Ryan Pickett was honored at MU's basketball game against Oklahoma State as one of Mizzou's three Bank of America Community Champions.