May 6, 2003
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
TIGERS WRAP UP SIX-IN-EIGHT STRETCH WITH WOOD-BAT FINALE VS. ILLINOIS
The Missouri baseball team plays its final non-conference game of the regular season on Tuesday against Illinois, with its second and final wood-bat game of the season at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O'Fallon, Mo. It will conclude a stretch of six games in eight days; the Tigers are currently 3-2 on that swing.
? ? ? The tradition of playing with wood bats started four years ago when Missouri Head Coach Tim Jamieson invited Saint Louis University to play at T.R. Hughes as a unique treat for college baseball fans toward the end of the season. It also comes, in the aluminum-bat age, out of necessity: The dimensions at T.R. Hughes are 382 feet to center field, 320' down the left-field line, and just 299' down the right-field line.
NOTE: LINCOLN GAME CANCELLED
Original versions of the 2003 Missouri baseball schedule listed a game to be held at Taylor Stadium this Wednesday, May 7, against Lincoln (Mo.). That game was cancelled early in the season when the Blue Tigers backed out of the contract. A suitable replacement was not found, leaving Mizzou to finish the regular season next weekend with its three-game Big 12 set against Oklahoma.
ILLINOIS SERIES INFORMATION
The Fighting Illini lead the all-time series, 10-7-1, yet the series record means virtually nothing given that Tuesday's matchup will be the first meeting between the clubs since 1988. The teams split a doubleheader in Columbia that pitted former Tiger skipper Gene McArtor against current Texas mentor Augie Garrido. From 1982-88, the two teams regularly played series on campus sites. Tuesday's game is the first neutral-site contest between the teams since 1977, and it is believed to be the first game in the St. Louis area.
TINGLER FEATURED IN BASEBALL AMERICA AS HE NEARS RECORDS
Senior CF Jayce Tingler (Smithville, Mo.) is featured in the current issue of Baseball America, which hit newsstands last week. Chicago Cubs pitching phenom Mark Prior is on the cover.
? ? ? Tingler, an all-Big 12 candidate, is close to several Tiger career records. He is just four hits from collecting his 266th, passing Ryan Fry (1995-98) as Mizzou's all-time hit king. In addition, Tingler's 161 career walks are just four away from breaking the record held by Matt Nivens (1994-97). Finally, Tingler needs to score 10 runs to pass Fry's 223 as Mizzou's career leader in that category.
RANK-AND-FILE
Although Mizzou is not ranked in any of the four major baseball polls, the Tigers are still receiving recognition by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America. The week of April 21 found the Tigers ranked in all four major polls; this season is the first time the Tigers have had such national recognition since the 1997 preseason.
JOHNSON BREAKS OUT THE WOOD
Junior OF Kyle Johnson (Omaha, Neb.) hit his fourth homer of the season last Tuesday at T.R. Hughes Ballpark, yet what was notable about the shot was not simply that he had hit Mizzou's last two homers at the time. The blast was hit with a wooden bat - just the second in the four-year history of the Wood-Bat Classic. Junior OF/DH Lee Laskowski (Clayton, Mo.) hit the first as a freshman in 2001.
KINSLER HAS STELLAR WEEK, SERIES IN OKLAHOMA
Tiger junior SS Ian Kinsler (Tucson, Ariz.) had an impressive weekend to cap a great week, as Kinsler went 10-for-12 (.833) in Stillwater, with four doubles, a triple, two homers, and eight RBI and runs apiece. He hit his first homer of the week during Mizzou's thrilling 11-10, bottom-of-the-ninth comeback win against Southeast Missouri State. He raised his average in Big 12 play to a team-leading .397, which ranks him sixth in the league. Overall, Kinsler is batting .348 with five homers and 36 RBI.
WALK (OFF) LIKE A MAN
Junior LF Ryan Rallo (Chesterfield, Mo.) hit a two-run homer to left field - his second of the game - with two out and two strikes in the bottom of the ninth to lead the Tigers to a thrilling 11-10 win over Southeast Missouri State last Wednesday at Taylor Stadium. It is the first walk-off homer for Mizzou (30-15) since Mick Weiss also deposited a shot into the Tiger bullpen against Iowa State in 2001. Rallo now leads the team with eight homers; he also has 35 RBI and is hitting .306.
BRICKTOWN WILL BE TIGERTOWN THIS MONTH
With its win on Saturday against No. 13 Texas A&M, coupled with Texas Tech's pair of losses against Nebraska over the weekend, Mizzou has clinched a berth in the 2003 Phillips 66 Big 12 Conference Baseball Tournament. It will mark the Tigers' first visit to Oklahoma City since 2000. This year's tournament will take place at SBC Bricktown Ballpark from May 21-25.
TINGLER DRIVES THE TRAIN
Senior OF Jayce Tingler (Smithville, Mo.) continues to prove himself as one of the Big 12's best leadoff hitters, yet he is also helping the Tigers in a way that would be expected of someone hitting lower in the order. In addition to leading the Tigers with 56 runs scored - which is not surprising from his position in the leadoff spot - he is also second on the team with 44 RBI.
? ? ? Tingler, who led the prestigious Cape Cod League in on-base percentage last summer, also hit his first career homer, at Southeast Missouri on March 11. He leads the squad and is second in the Big 12 with a .408 batting average, and boasts an impressive .530 on-base percentage - which leads the Big 12 - thanks to his league-leading 41 walks.
HOW SWEEP IT IS
The Tigers recently completed a 13-game winning streak, which is the team's longest since the 1988 Mizzou squad also won 13 in a row. Included in that string are sweeps of Big 12 rivals Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech (two games). Some notes:
BIG 12 COACHES PICK MIZZOU NINTH
Defending NCAA champion Texas was the overwhelming favorite to capture the 2003 Big 12 baseball title in a preseason vote by the conference's 10 head diamond coaches, while Missouri was picked to finish ninth.
? ? ? The Longhorns received nine of the 10 first place votes (coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams) while Oklahoma captured the other top spot prediction. The Sooners nailed down third place among the prognosticators with 61 total points behind Baylor with 62. Texas registered a "perfect" score of 81 points among the baseball mentors.
? ? ? The predicted 2003 order was not greatly different from 2002's final standings when the Longhorns notched first, NU and Tech tied for second, Oklahoma finished fourth, Baylor, Kansas State and Oklahoma State tied for fifth, and Texas A&M was eighth, and Kansas 10th. The Tigers, who finished ninth last year with a 24-29 record overall, were 9-16 in the league.
CONSISTENT PRODUCTION
Of the seven hitters in the Tiger lineup averaging the required 2.5 plate appearances a game to qualify for NCAA statistics, five of them - Jayce Tingler, Brad Flanders (Smithville, Mo.), Ian Kinsler (Tucson, Ariz.), Zane Taylor (Kirksville, Mo.), and Ryan Rallo (Chesterfield, Mo.) - are hitting above .300 this season. The other two, Jeremy Hernandez (Aptos, Calif.) and Cody Ehlers (Stillwater, Okla.), are batting .290 and .283, respectively. Ehlers has recovered from an extremely slow start to the season - he was hitting just .189 heading into the Big 12 home opener against Kansas on March 21 - and is hitting .351 (third on the team) in Big 12 games and .339 in his last 28 games overall.
FLANDERS IS MOST VALUABLE
Another reason for the success of the Tigers has been the production of junior C Brad Flanders, who was a teammate of Tingler's at Smithville High School north of Kansas City.
? ? ? Originally signed by Mizzou to help manage a young pitching staff, Flanders has also provided plenty of pop in his bat. He currently is second on the team with his .356 batting average, and three weeks ago hit homers against SMS and Baylor to give him a team-high-tying six this year. In addition, his guidance behind the plate is one of many reasons Mizzou's team ERA has dropped to 5.02 from 7.09 a year ago.
? ? ? Flanders was named the Most Valuable Player of the ULM Holiday Inn/Citgo Classic the weekend of Feb. 22-23. Flanders batted .615 (8-for-13) in Mizzou's three games with a pair of homers, four doubles, five RBI and five runs scored.
NUMBER 1 IN YOUR SCORECARD...
While it's obvious that this year's team is not the same as last year's, it is still literally true. A total of 19 players are seeing their first game action as Tigers: nine are true freshmen, three are redshirt freshmen, and seven are transfers from two- or four-year colleges.
? ? ? Of those 19, four (Flanders, Kinsler, Taylor and Hernandez) are position starters, with another five (Garrett, Roberson, Williams, Johnson and Boone) seeing significant platoon or reserve roles. Three (Hill, Admire and Shipman) have cracked the mid-week pitching rotation, with another pair (Stallings, Parker) playing significant relief roles.
TIGERS IN THE NCAA STATS
The Tigers' 8.8 runs per game not only leads the Big 12 - it also ranks Mizzou eighth in the nation through last weekend's games.
? ? ? Individually, sophomore Travis Wendte (Moore, Okla.) has eight saves, tying him for 12th. Auburn's Steven Register and N.C. State's Joey Devine lead with 13 saves.
MIZZOU SCORES RECORD-BREAKING TOTAL VS. BAYLOR
Before a regional television audience on FOX Sports Net, Mizzou broke out the bats at Baylor Ballpark and beat the top-20 Bears on April 19, 23-18, to snap a season-long four-game losing streak.
? ? ? The 23 runs were the most by a Missouri ballclub against a Big 12 Conference opponent. In addition, it marked the most runs in a conference game since 1996, when Mizzou beat Oklahoma State, 24-23, in the final season of the Big Eight.
? ? ? The school record for runs against a conference opponent is 27, set by the 1956 club against Big Seven foe Nebraska.
POWER SURGE
Mizzou went through a six-game homerless stretch in late March, yet the Tigers have slowly started to increase their power numbers of late.
? ? ? Junior SS Ian Kinsler (Tucson, Ariz.) hit his second solo shot of the season last Tuesday vs. SMS, and junior C Brad Flanders (Smithville, Mo.) joined junior OF Ryan Rallo (Chesterfield, Mo.) and junior 1B Cody Ehlers (Stillwater, Okla.) for the team lead with his fifth homer later in that same game. All three players then homered in the Baylor series, along with junior OF/DH Kyle Johnson (Omaha, Neb.), who bashed his second grand slam of the season in the first inning of MU's 23-18 Saturday win. Johnson has since hit two other homers in the last week and a half, and Rallo hit a pair - including a walk-off homer - on Wednesday vs. Southeast Missouri State. Kinsler added two in Sunday's game at Oklahoma State after sandwiching one between Rallo's pair vs. SEMO.
? ? ? Missouri has 41 homers this season with six games to play, compared to 44 last year.