Feb. 19, 2003

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

MIZZOU HEADS TO BAYOU
A week after rain forced the Tigers to seriously curtail their scheduled play, the University of Missouri baseball team heads to Louisiana in hopes of getting three games in against solid competition.
? ? ? Mizzou opens up play in the ULM Holiday Inn/Citgo Classic on Friday against the host Indians from Louisiana-Monroe. Justin James (1-1) will look to bounce back from a loss against Northwestern last weekend.
? ? ? On Saturday, Garrett Broshuis (0-2) will get the start against Northwestern State (La.) in search of his first win of the season. "Brush" has battled through a 6.17 ERA in his first two starts. He'll face the only lefty of the tournament for the Tigers in Casey Johnson (1-0).
? ? ? Junior righty Derek Roper (1-0), the only remaining undefeated hurler among the Tiger starters, looks to keep his record intact against Northern Iowa, which will be playing its season opener in Monroe.

SCOUTING REPORT: ULM, NSU, UNI
Missouri's first two opponents, host Louisiana-Monroe and Northwestern State, have combined for a 10-5 record entering this weekend's action.
? ? ? ULM took two out of thre last weekend from New Orleans before falling at LSU on Tuesday, 9-4. LSU had been swept by Kansas last weekend before beating the Indians. Willie Rickard leads ULM with a .400 batting average, while Joey Wolfe is slugging a team-best .609. The Indians' pitching staff has a combined 2.55 ERA, and is allowing opponents to hit .193 against them.
? ? ? After getting swept themselves by LSU, Northwestern State has reeled off five straight wins, including a home-and-home sweep of Louisiana-Lafayette and a three-game home sweep of Jacksonville State. Josh Hoop is batting .429 with four extra-base hits and 12 RBI, giving him a team-best .571 slugging percentage. The Demons' staff owns a 2.22 ERA with 48 strikeouts against 25 walks, and is allowing opponents to hit .246.

DEMON TIES STRONG WITH TIGERS
There are a couple of Missouri ties with Northwestern State. Tiger pitching coach Sean McCann spent three seasons as the Demons' pitching coach. From 1998-2000, McCann spear-headed a Demon pitching staff that recorded the nation's fifth-best tea, ERA in 1998; that team also won the Southland Conference Championship. Among McCann's mentees at NSU was Brian Lawrence, who will likely be the San Diego Padres' opening-day starter.
? ? ? McCann was hired at NSU by another former Missouri assistant coach, John Cohen, who was the Demons' head coach from 1998-2001 and is now the top assistant at Florida.

TIGERS ADD DOUBLEHEADER WITH YOUNGSTOWN STATE
Because of Missouri's weather-related cancellations in Arizona last weekend, the Tigers are scrambling to add replacement games to their schedule. The first rescheduling will take place next weekend, as Saturday's mid-series game with Youngstown State has been turned into a doubleheader. Two 7-inning games will now be played next Saturday, Mar. 1; the start time of 2 p.m. for the first game has not been altered.

PITCH THIS
Although the Tigers' bats were alive at UNC Wilmington as evidenced by their 20 runs and 31 hits in the three games, Mizzou's pitching staff registered several excellent performances.
? ? ? As a squad, the staff sported a 2.77 ERA in its 26 innings of work, allowing the Seahawks to bat just .219 against the Mizzou defense.
? ? ? In addition, four Tigers - Wendte, junior Andy Shipman (Bellevue, Neb. / Iowa Western CC), and freshmen Taylor Parker (Bellaire, Texas / Bellaire HS) and Matthew Stallings (Dallas, Texas / [Hurst] L.D. Bell HS) made shutout appearances on the Atlantic coast. Shipman pitched four solid innings on Friday in completion of Thursday's suspended game to earn his first save as a Tiger. Wendte pitched 3-1/3 innings on Sunday to earn his first save of the season. Parker and Stallings combined for two innings of effective relief in Friday's game-two loss.

TIGERS A HIT ON CAROLINA COAST
Mizzou got off to a swinging start last week at UNC Wilmington, bashing five home runs in its 12-1 season-opening win. That's the most round-trippers by a Tiger outfit in over two seasons, spanning back to the first round of the 2000 Big 12 Conference Tournament when MU hit a Big 12 Tournament record five against the Huskers.
? ? ? Junior transfer Jeremy Hernandez (Aptos, Calif. / Cabrillo JC) hit two two-run homers in the game, and freshman James Boone (Clinton, Okla. / Clinton HS) hit his first as a Tiger. Juniors Cody Ehlers (Stillwater, Okla. / Stillwater HS) and Ryan Rallo (Chesterfield, Mo. / CBC) hit their first of the season, and Rallo followed with a second round-tripper the next day against the Seahawks.

MIZZOU BREAKS SEASON-OPENER BAD LUCK
Mizzou's 12-1 win in its first game at UNC Wilmington gave the Tigers their first win in a season-opener in four years, dating back to their 14-7 win against Lincoln to open the 1999 season. Since then, Mizzou had lost to Pepperdine (2000), tied San Jose State (2001), and lost against Portland (2002). The Tigers are 6-3-1 in their last 10 season openers.

UNCW MARKS EARLIEST START IN SCHOOL HISTORY
In addition to the first season-opening win in a while, the Feb. 6 contest against the Seahawks marked the earliest start in Mizzou's 109 seasons of baseball. The previous earliest start came two years ago, when the Tigers opened the 2000 season against San Jose State on Feb. 9. As recently as 1996, Mizzou didn't start its baseball season until Feb. 20 - two weeks after this year's start.
? ? ? Although the Tigers play their first game in the friendly confines of Taylor Stadium/Simmons Field on on Feb. 25, that isn't the earliest home start in Mizzou history. That honor goes to the 1999 squad, which hosted Lincoln University on a sunny, 38-degree day on Feb. 13.

STREAKING TIGERS, HIDDEN SLUMPS
Junior catcher Brad Flanders (Smithville, Mo. / Hutchinson CC) and junior infielder Jeremy Hernandez (Aptos, Calif. / Cabrillo College) are riding three-game hitting streaks, which equal the longest of the season for the Tigers. Junior outfielder Lee Laskowski (Clayton, Mo. / Clayton HS) and junior shortstop Ian Kinsler (Tucson, Ariz. / Arizona State) posted three-game streaks earlier in the year.
? ? ? In addition, senior All-Big 12 outfielder Jayce Tingler (Smithville, Mo. / Smithville HS) has three multi-hit games this year - the most on the team. Ryan Rallo (Chesterfield, Mo. / CBC) has a pair of multi-RBI games.

HOME SWEET HOME - TENFOLD
The Tigers open their home schedule on Tuesday, Feb. 25, with a 4 p.m. game against Central Methodist. That begins a massive 11-game homestand - the longest of the season for Mizzou - that stretches over 16 days into the second week of March. The homestand is anchored by weekend four-game series against Youngstown State (Feb. 28-Mar. 2, with a newly scheduled doubleheader on March 1) and Creighton (Mar. 7-9). In addition, Mizzou will host Lindenwood and Western Illinois for mid-week games.