April 30, 2002

COLUMBIA, Mo. - The red-hot Missouri Tigers, winners of six of their last seven games, play Western Illinois in a two-game mid-week series at Taylor Stadium/Simmons Field. The Tigers, 22-20, and Leathernecks, 5-32, will play Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. and Wednesday at 3 p.m.

Last Time Out: Missouri's bats stayed hot as the Tigers won a best-of-three series from No. 19 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. Missouri picked up an 11-10 win in the opener behind a pair of two-run doubles by Cody Ehlers and home runs from Jody Roughton and Mick Weiss. Despite three hits each by Jayce Tingler and Roughton, Texas A&M recorded a 16-5 win in game two before the Tigers used a complete-game performance from Abel Newton. Tingler and Lee Laskowski each drove in four runs.

MU/Western Illinois Series: The Tigers have won the past nine meetings and lead the series, 14-3. MU won both meetings last season, 12-0 and 10-2.

Who's Hot? For the Tigers, take your pick as the team hit .338 last week and five individuals hit .450 or better last week. Chris Julo went 3-of-6 with three runs batted in while Jody Roughton hit .474 (9-of-19) with a team-best seven RBI. Lee Laskowski and Cody Ehlers each hit .471 (8-of-17). Jayce Tingler hit .450 (9-of-20) with six RBI and extended his career-high hit streak to 18 games.

Hit Machine: Outfielder Lee Laskowski enters this week's play hitting .394, a total that ranks third in the Big 12 Conference. Laskowski leads the Tigers with 23 multi-hit games. Cody Ehlers and his .378 average ranks fifth.

Mr. RBI: Junior infielder Jody Roughton leads the Tigers with 50 runs batted in, the third-most in the Big 12 Conference.

Off And Running: The next stolen base for Jayce Tingler will tie him with Dave Silvestri (1986-88) for fourth place on MU's all-time career chart with 47 stolen bases. Tingler, who enters the week with 46 career swipes, moved into a tie for 10th with a walk this past weekend. He could also crack the program's all-time Top 10 charts this season in hits and runs scored. Here's a look at where Tingler stands and who is 10th:
Walks - Tingler, 116 10th, Jon Williams, 116
Hits - Tingler, 179 10th, Curt Brown, 210
Runs - Tingler, 151 10th, Greg Cypret, 156

Next: Missouri will play Oklahoma State in a Big 12 Conference series. Game one will be Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Taylor Stadium/Simmons Field.