Big 12 Leading Mizzou Travles to Oklahoma State
4/14/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 14, 2005
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The No. 13 ranked Missouri baseball team takes its Big 12 Conference leading 8-1 record into a three-game series with Oklahoma State this weekend. The Tigers and Cowboys will open the series at 7 p.m. on Friday night in Stillwater, Okla.
BIG START TO THE BIG 12
Mizzou's 8-1 start to the Big 12 Conference season is its best conference start since the 1981 team opened Big Eight play 8-1.
In 1980, MU opened the Big Eight portion of the schedule with a 9-1 record. That season, the Tigers won the conference title.
MU won its first five Big 12 games this year, which is the best start to its conference season since the Big 12 was started in 1997.
AT THE POLLS
The Tigers continue to climb in the national polls, coming in as high as No. 13 this week.
Both the Baseball America poll and the Collegiate Baseball poll have Missouri ranked 13th. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association has MU ranked at No. 16 and the USA TODAY/ESPN Coaches' Poll ranks the Tigers No. 21.
NATIONAL RECOGNITION
The nations has taken notice to the Tigers, as evident by the latest polls. Evidence is also found in the coverage around the country that Mizzou has received. In the last two weeks, MU has received recognition from Sports Illustrated, Baseball America, ESPN.com and USA Today.
STAT TRACKS, PART I
With an ERA that is third in the nation (2.33) and a runs per game average that is fourth in the nation (10.4), it's no wonder how Missouri is 27-6.
The Tigers also ranked sixth in the national statistics with 0.56 triples per game.
Individually, junior James Boone is second in the nation with a average of 1.68 RBI per game while freshman Jacob Priday is 11th with 1.45 RBI per game.
Sophomore Hunter Mense is 17th with an average of 1.39 runs scored per game.
Sophomore John McKee ranks fifth in hit by pitches per game (0.47) and is 17th in walks per game (0.94).
On the mound, sophomore Max Scherzer has a 1.03 ERA, which is ninth best in the country. His 13.3 strikeouts per game average is fourth best in the national standings
STAT TRACKS, PART II
In the Big 12 Conference statistics, Mizzou ranks first in ERA, as MU pitchers have a combined 2.29 ERA.
The Tigers have the league leader in ERA (sophomore Max Scherzer with a 1.03 ERA) and two of the top four top hitters in the league (sophomore Hunter Mense with a .394 and junior James Boone with a .377 batting average).
Joining Scherzer are junior Doug Mathis, whose 2.11 ERA is fourth best, and sophomore Nathan Culp, who has a 2.38 ERA, which ranks ninth in the Big 12.
Scherzer also leads the conference in strikeouts with 77 and opponents' batting average as opponentes are hitting just .132 off of him.
The Tigers lead the Big 12 with 343 runs scored on the year and have three players in the top 10 in the conference standings in runs scored led by Mense, who is second with 43. McKee is tied for fourth with junior Derek Chambers with 42 runs scored.
Boone is second in the Big 12 with 57 RBI and freshman Jacob Priday is third with 42 runs batted in.
LIGHTING UP THE SCOREBOARD
Missouri has outscored its opponents 343-10 this season and has recorded double-digits in runs in 18 of its 33 games. That includes a stretch of nine straight games with at least 10 runs from March 6-March 20. The Tigers are averaging over 10 runs a game, while holding its opponents to just over three runs per outing.
Mizzou has scored 25 runs twice this season, recording a 25-2 win over Navy on Feb. 25 and a 25-0 win over Texas Tech on April 1.
Earlier this year, MU outscored North Dakota State 55-4 in a four-game series and the previous week, it swept a three-games series from Youngstown State by a combined score of 42-2.
If MU was to maintain its current scoring pace, it would finish the regular season with 582 runs. The school record for runs in a season is 573, set in 1998.
