May 19, 2005

No. 20 Mizzou will close out the regular season with a three-game series against Baylor in Waco, Texas this weekend. The teams enter the weekend with identical 35-18 overall records. Baylor leads the Big 12 with an 18-6 conference mark, while the Tigers are fourth at 14-10 in league play.

ON THE RECORD
With one more win in Big 12 play, Missouri would tie a mark for the most conference wins in the past seven seasons. The Tigers are currently 14-10 on the year with the three-game series this weekend at Baylor remaining on the schedule. In 2003, MU was 15-11, which was the best record since the 1998 team went 17-12 in the second year of the Big 12 Conference. The 17 wins is the most Big 12 wins for the Tigers. Missouri was 16-14 in 1997, the first year of the Big 12 Conference.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Mizzou closed out the home portion of the 2005 schedule with a 4-3 win over Kansas last Sunday. The Tigers finished 21-5 at Taylor Stadium this season. Last season, MU was 17-10 at home. MU won each of its home series this season, including Big 12 Conference series wins over Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Kansas. Missouri also took sweeps in three of their home series in 2005.

SHUTDOWN
The Tigers were shutout last Tuesday for the first time in 53 games, as they fell to Southern Illinois, 7-0. Missouri had not been held without a run this season prior to Tuesday. The last time Mizzou was shutout was against Wichita State in NCAA Regional play last June 4, as the Shockers defeated MU, 3-0.

PULLING RANK
Heading into this weekend's three-game series against No. 10 Baylor, the Tigers are 8-6. They are 2-4 against Top 10 teams, taking victories over No. 1 Texas and No. 5 Nebraska. The Tigers swept a three-game series over Texas A&M, when the Aggies were ranked No. 25. They also took two games of a three-game set against then-No. 25 Texas Tech, including a 25-0 no-hitter over the Red Raiders in the series opener.

HONOR ROLL
With the final month of the regular season upon us, the watch lists for several postseason awards have begun to surface. Sophomore Max Scherzer has been named to the watch list for the Xanthus Dick Howser Award, the Golden Spikes Award, the Clemons Award and Wallace Award. Junior James Boone joined Scherzer on the Howser Watch List. Scherzer and Boone are two of 64 on the Howser Watch List. The winner will be announced during the College World Series on June 17. Scherzer is among 40 named to the Golden Spikes Award Watch List. That award will be handed out in July and the Wallace Award will be handed out on June 16 in Omaha. On Friday, it was announced that Scherzer is among 10 semifinalist for the Clemons Award.

TO THE MAX
Sophomore Max Scherzer added a complete game to his resume as he went the distance against Nebraska on May 6 in Lincoln, Neb. Scherzer struck out nine and allowed just one run on four hits in the victory over the Huskers. Last week, he pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and striking out 10 to defeat Kansas and move to 8-2 on the season. He not only leads the Big 12 Conference, but is sixth in the nation with a 1.22 ERA. Included in the eight victories is a combined no-hitter on April 1 against Texas Tech, in which he went seven innings and struck out a career-high 14 batters. Scherzer leads the Big 12 with 117 strikeouts on the season. John Dettmer's 127 K's in 1991 is the school record at MU. Scherzer's 117 strikeouts . Scherzer was named the Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Week and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association National Pitcher of the Week after the no-hitter on April 1. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper also named Scherzer among the National Players of the Week.

HITS KEEP ON COMING
The longest hitting streak of the season for the Tigers was junior James Boone's 12-game streak in March. Junior Derek Chambers had a 10-game hitting streak earlier in the year. Chambers hold the longest current hitting streak heading into the weekend series at Baylor, having reached safely in the last three games.

AT THE POLLS
The Tigers are ranked No. 20 ranking in Baseball America for the second straight week and No. 22 by the National Baseball Writers' Association. Mizzou is also receiving votes in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' poll. MU has been ranked as high as No. 13 in both the Baseball America poll and the Collegiate Baseball poll, its highest ranking since it reach the 13th spot in 1981. This weekend's opponent, Baylor is ranked in the top 12 in all four polls, with the highest being a No. 8 ranking by Collegiate Baseball.

STAT TRACKS, PART I
Following last weekend, Missouri had the fifth best ERA in the nation and the 10th best runs per game average, according to stats released on Tuesday by the NCAA. The Tigers are also ranked 12th in the national statistics with 0.43 triples per game. Individually, junior James Boone is third in the nation with an average of 1.47 RBI per game. Sophomore John McKee ranks seventh in hit by pitches with 22 and is ninth with 50 walks on the season. On the mound, sophomore Max Scherzer has a 1.22 ERA, which is the fourth best mark in the nation. His 11.9 strikeouts per game average is 11th best in the national standings and his 117 strikeouts is sixth most in the nation.

STAT TRACKS, PART II
Mizzou's pitching staff ranks third in the Big 12 Conference with a 2.74 ERA led by sophomore Max Scherzer, who leads the Big 12 with a 1.22 ERA on the year. Scherzer also leads the Big 12 Conference with 117 strikeouts. His 11.9 K's per game average is more than one strikeout more per game ahead of second place. He also leads the league with an opponents' batting average of just .137. Junior James Boone is 10th in the Big 12 with a .355 batting average and sophomore Hunter Mense ranks 14th with a .341 average. Boone has 63 runs batted in, which is second in the Big 12, two spots ahead of Priday who has 57 RBI. The Tigers lead the Big 12 in runs scored with 433 and have three players in the top 10 in runs scored led by sophomore's John McKee's 54, which is third best in the Big 12. Mense is fifth with 52 runs scored and junior Derek Chambers' 50 runs is ninth most in the conference. McKee is second in walks (50) and is fifth in on base percentage (.475), one spot behind Boone who has a .487 on base percentage. Mense is seventh with a .455 on-base percentage.