Baseball Homestand Continues This Weekend
3/17/2000 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 17, 2000
The Missouri Tigers (11-8, 3-3) continue a five-game homestand this weekend, hosting the Bowling Green Falcons (3-5-1) on Friday-Saturday-Sunday at Taylor Stadium at Simmons Field. Friday's game has been moved up from what was originally a 7 p.m. starting time to 4 p.m., while the games Saturday and Sunday start at 2 p.m. and 12 p.m., respectively. The Tigers enter the weekend action having won two in a row and three of their last four. Missouri travels to No. 19 Wichita State (6-3) on Tues., March 21. The game will be played at Wichita's Lawrence/Dumont Stadium, the minor league home of the Class AA Wichita Wranglers (Kansas City). The game was moved from the Shocker's Eck Stadium due to ongoing construction. Wichita State opens Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend, entertaining Southern Illinois.
Series Records
Missouri will be playing Bowling Green State for the first time, and is tied 3-3 with Wichita State.
Missouri Is Ahead Of the Curve
Coach Tim Jamieson is especially pleased with MU's 3-3 start in the Big 12 Conference race - at least as it compares to a year ago. In 1999, the Tigers opened conference play against the same two opponents as this season - Texas Tech and Texas - and went 1-5 in those games. So, one year later, the Tigers are two games better off in the conference standings than they were in '99.
Injury Report
The Tigers suffered more than some bruised egos with their loss at Southeast Missouri State last week. Two infielders also suffered broken bones. Third baseman Landon Brandes is sidelined at least until the Wichita State contest with a broken bone in his left hand. He suffered the injury when he was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning at SEMO. Mick Weiss broke his right thumb in the same game trying to field a hot shot in the first inning. He started at third base on Tuesday night and hit his first home run of the season. Kurt Propst made his first career start on Wednesday, at third base, and responded with a 2-for-4 day and made several fine plays in the field.
Missouri's Pitching Rotation
? Bowling Green State #1 - Jon Harris, 6-1, Jr., RHP - 1-1, 6.52 ERA ? Bowling Green State #2 - Matt Hobbs, 6-2, Soph., LHP - 1-0, 1.74 ERA ? Bowling Green State #3 - Logan Dale, 6-5, Jr., RHP - 2-3, 5.77 ERA ? Wichita State - Pete Sansone, 6-0, Jr., RHP - 2-0, 4.30 ERAMissouri Coach Tim Jamieson
Head Coach Tim Jamieson has firmly established himself as one the top young coaches in all of college baseball. In his sixth year, T.J. has led Missouri to a 173-125 record. That mark includes three postseason conference tournaments, a trip to the NCAA Tournament, and a regular-season Big Eight title. Jamieson's Tigers are 154-91 since 1996, and have won at least 30 games the last four seasons.
Stegall's Streak Continues
Sophomore shortstop Ryan Stegall has hit safely in 16 of Mizzou's 19 games this season and is riding a seven-game hitting streak - a period during which he has hit .483 (14-of-29), with five doubles and a home run. He's third in the Big 12 Conference for all games with a .403 batting average and second in league play hitting .481. He leads the team in batting average (.403), hits (31), doubles (11), triples (2), RBI (25), total bases (52) and slugging percentage (.675). On Wednesday, his single in the ninth inning drove in the winning run in a 7-6 victory over Arkansas State. On the mound, Stegall is fourth in the Big 12 with four saves. He's had only one rocky outing - in Game #1 at Tech when he surrendered six runs in the ninth inning. But he came back and set the Red Raiders down in the 10th to earn the victory and also got a save in Game 3. Stegall has made 11 career relief appearances and has been scored on just once. He's been unscored upon in his four innings of work.
He 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.
Williams Heating Up At The Plate
Catcher Jon Williams, Mizzou's leading hitter a year ago with a .362 average, slumped through the first few weeks of the season, but is regaining his stroke now. He's hit at a .455 clip during his current seven-game hitting streak. For the season, Williams' batting average is up to .341, and he leads the team with 21 bases on balls which gives him a team-best .552 on-base percentage.
Jamieson Can Rest Easy When He Calls On The 'Pen
Head Coach Tim Jamieson and pitching coach Chal Fanning have used their bullpen for a total of 73 innings so far in 2000. For the season, Mizzou's bullpen crew has posted a 3.69 earned run average while allowing 69 hits and 39 runs (30 earned), with 79 strikeouts and 39 walks. The MU relievers were instrumental in Mizzou's series win at Texas Tech, earning both victories and a save. Against Western Illinois on March 1, five of the six relievers used by Jamieson didn't allow a hit. And against Texas, the Longhorns scored just one run off of Mizzou relief pitching in three games. In the just-completed Arkansas State series, the Indians scored just one run off the MU bullpen.
Missouri Gets Mid-Week Sweep Of Arkansas State
The Arkansas State Indians rolled into town on Tuesday with a 11-6 record and left 48 hours later with a pair of defeats. Missouri came from behind to win both games, 6-2 and 7-6, using two-out rallies along the way. J.R. Warner broke out of a 2-for-16 slump by going 5-for-8 in the two games, while Ryan Stegall (3-for-6) and Jon Williams (4-for-8) continued their hot hitting. Logan Dale won the first game, improving his record to 2-3. It was his first victory since February 19. Ralph McCasland came out of the bullpen to win the second game, which MU won in the bottom of the ninth on a base hit by Stegall.
Tingler Was Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Player-of-the-Week
Pesky freshman Jayce Tingler (Smithville, MO) was named March 6 as the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week in voting by a select panel of media covering Big 12 baseball. Tingler enjoyed 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, he 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. He wore an 0-for-5 collar, though, last Wednesday at Southeast Missouri State, before going 3-for-10 against Arkansas State. Tingler scored three runs, including the game-winner, in Wednesday's 7-6 victory. Earlier this season, MU junior righthander Logan Dale was the Big 12's Pitcher of the Week.
Last Big 12 Weekend
Missouri fought No. 4 Texas tooth and nail at Taylor Stadium and finally came up with a 5-3 victory on Sun., March5, after dropping 6-4 and 9-6 decisions on Saturday. Jayce Tingler drove in three runs in the third game, and Pete Sansone was the first of five Mizzou pitchers who did a masterful job of shutting down the Longhorns. Sansone pitched the first six innings and struckout seven to up his record to 2-0. Ryan Stegall pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his fourth save of the season. On Saturday, the teams were forced to play two games, after Texas had difficulty arriving on Friday in time to play a schedule 7 p.m. game. Missouri had a chance in the ninth inning of the first game with the tying runs at second and third base with two outs and Stegall at the plate. But UT's Matt Rosenberg made an unbelievable diving catch across the tarp in foul territory to rob Stegall of a life at the plate and ended the game with Texas the 6-4 victor. In the second game, Texas' D.J. Jones fanned 13 Tigers as the Longhorns defeated Mizzou, 9-6. The Tigers made four damaging errors in the contest and also ran themselves out of a couple of scoring threats.
Hobbs Will Make First Start On Saturday
Sophomore lefty Matt Hobbs will make his first career start on Saturday vs. Bowling Green. In seven appearances this season out of the bullpen, Hobbs leads MU with a 1.74 earned run average, and in 10.1 innings, has 14 strikeouts and just four walks.
Wilfong Feasts On Big 12 Pitching
Figure this one out. Centerfielder Nick Wilfong is hitting .478 in six Big 12 Conference games and just .167 in non-league action. In league play, he has a .913 slugging percentage with two doubles, a triple and two home runs (both of which game in Game 1 of the Texas Tech series). For the season, though, the left-handed swinger also leads the teams with 20 strikeouts.
Around The Bases
? Missouri has hit into 24 double plays this season, while turning just eight. The Tigers have not had a game in which they've completed more than one double play.
? Missouri had not allowed a first-inning run in five straight games before Southeast Missouri State's Indians plated six last Wednesday.
? J.R. Warner and Jayce Tingler lead MU's defensive efforts in the outfield. Warner has three assists this season and Tingler two.
? Ten of Missouri's 19 games have been decided by two runs or less. The Tigers are 4-1 in one-run games and 2-4 in two-run games.
? Jon Williams has walked at least once in 13 of the 17 games in which he's played this season. He did not walk, however, during the Arkansas State series.
? Mike Rallo, Ryan Stegall and J.R. Warner have started all 19 games for the Tigers.
? Mike Rallo didn't have an extra-base hit in Missouri's first 16 games, but has doubled in two of the Tigers' last three contests.
? Missouri hitters have struck out 59 times in six Big 12 Conference games (9.8 per game) - 80 times in their other 13 contests (6.2 per game).
? Catcher Ryan Pickett was honored at MU's home 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.
? Missouri went 3-1 on its trip to Natchitoches, La., in February, beating Nicholls State (3-2), Northwestern State (2-1) and Centenary (10-2) and losing to Arkansas-Little Rock (9-3). The Tigers rode their pitching and some timely hitting to the three wins. MU opponents hit just .160 against the Tigers, who posted a team ERA on the trip of 2.50. Missouri pitchers rolled up 33 strikeouts against 17 walks.
MU RECORD BREAKDOWNOverall 11-8 Home 6-3 Away 3-4 Neutral Sites 2-1 Non-Conference 8-5 Big 12 Conference 3-3 Tournament Play 2-1 Vs. Ranked Opponents 3-3 Vs. Top-10 Opponents 1-2 Vs. Division I Opponents 10-7 Vs. Non-Division I Opponents 1-1 Day Games 7-7 Night Games 4-1 When Temperature is above 50o 10-7 When Temperature is below 50o 1-1 In 1-run Games 4-1 In 2-run Games 2-3 In Extra Innings 1-0 In February 7-5 In March 4-3 On Mondays 0-0 On Tuesdays 3-1 On Wednesdays 2-1 On Thursdays 1-0 On Fridays 1-2 On Saturdays 1-4 On Sundays 3-0 Vs. Lefthanders 5-1 Vs. Righthanders 6-7 When The Tigers Score First 6-5 When Opponent Scores First 5-3 In 2-Game Series 4-2 In 3-Game Series 3-3 In Single Games 4-3 In Shutouts 1-0 When Scoring 0-5 Runs 3-4 When Scoring 6-10 Runs 4-4 When Scoring 11-20 Runs 5-0 When leading after 1 inning 4-0 When leading after 2 innings 5-1 When leading after 3 innings 6-2 When leading after 4 innings 7-1 When leading after 5 innings 8-1 When leading after 6 innings 9-1 When leading after 7 innings 8-0 When leading after 8 innings 8-0 When leading after 9 innings 9-0 When leading after 10 innings 1-0 Longest Winning Streak 3 Longest Losing Streak 3 (includes final game of1999) Longest Game 3:56 vs. Texas, 3/5 Shortest Game 2:07 vs. Pepperdine, 2/11 Most Innings 10 at Texas Tech, 2/25 In The State of Missouri 6-4 Against In-State Opponents 1-2 Against Out-of-State Opponents 10-6 Vs. Independent Schools 1-0 Vs. Mid-Continent Conference 2-0 Vs. Ohio Valley Conference 0-1 Vs. Southland Conference 2-0 Vs. Sun Belt Conference 2-1 Vs. West Coast Conference 0-2
MISSOURI HONORS IN 2000
Logan Dale - ? Big 12 Pitcher of the Week, Feb. 21
Jayce Tingler - Big 12 Player of the Week, March 6
