113th Season of Mizzou Baseball Opens Friday
2/8/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 8, 2007
MIZZOU AT FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL
First Pitch: Friday- 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT)
Saturday- 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT)
Sunday- 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT)
Stadium: University Park Stadium
Capacity: 2,000
Records: Mizzou: 0-0
Florida International: 1-1
Series History: First Meeting
Coaches: MU- Tim Jamieson
(399-290-2/13th year at MU and overall)
FIU- Danny Price
(1,061-571/28th year at FIU and overall)
Radio: KTGR 1580-AM
Live Audio: KTGR.com
Live Stats: fiusports.com
For more information: mutigers.com
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FIRST PITCH
The 113th season of baseball at Mizzou will open with this weekend's three-game series against Florida International in Miami.
MU and FIU will get the series underway at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT) on Friday night at University Park Stadium. The series will continue with games at 1 p.m. ET (Noon CT) on both Saturday and Sunday.
The Tigers open the season with an 11-game road trip with trips to Phoenix and Memphis following this weekend's visit to Miami.
THE 400 CLUB
The first win of the 2007 season for Missouri will also mark the 400th career victory for Head Coach Tim Jamieson.
Beginning his 13th season at the helm of the Tigers, Jamieson will join legendary Mizzou coaches Gene McArtor (733 wins) and John "Hi" Simmons (481 wins) as the only coaches in MU history to reach the 400-win mark.
McArtor and Simmons both have their numbers retired at MU and are members of the Missouri Athletics Hall of Fame.
Jamieson took over as head coach of the Tigers in 1995 and has a career record of 399-290-2 heading into the 2007 season.
During his tenure, Missouri has recorded at least 30 wins 10 times and has made five trips to the NCAA Tournament, including the last four. Last year he took the Tigers to the first Super Regional in school history.
He has coached five players to All-America honors and eight to Freshman All-America recognition.
FOR OPENERS
Mizzou's loss to East Tennessee State in the 2006 season opener snapped a three-game winning streak for MU in openers.
The Tigers are 7-4-1 under Head Coach Tim Jamieson in season openers, which included a 0-0 tie against San Jose State in 2001. That game was called after six innings due to poor weather conditions with no score
COMING BACK
Offensively, the Tigers return much of their offensive production from last season.
In 2006, Jacob Priday, who returns for his junior season, led the Tigers in home runs (11), RBI (49), total bases (112) and slugging percentage (.481) and was second in doubles (13).
Brock Bond, Evan Frey and Ryan Lollis finished the 2006 season with the top batting averages for the Tigers and all three return in 2007.
Bond, Frey and John McKee led the squad in on base percentage a year ago and will return for the new season.
On the mound, Aaron Crow and Rick Zagone made a combined 37 appearances and 25 starts for Mizzou in 2006 as freshmen.
Crow was third on the team with 77.2 innings pitched, while Zagone was fourth (68.2).
FOUR-FOR-FOUR
Missouri is one of just 22 teams nationally that has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons. Only one other team in the Big 12 Conference, Texas, can make that claim.
The Tigers have made NCAA Regionals in each of the last four seasons and last year advanced to the Super Regionals for the first time in school history.
TIGERS EIGHTH IN BIG 12 POLL
Missouri was picked eighth in the Big 12 Coaches' Preseason Poll. Texas was the pick to win the conference, garnering seven of the 10 first place votes and 79 total points. Oklahoma State was second with 70 points and two first-place votes.
Two seasons ago, Mizzou was picked eighth in the preseason poll and finished the year fourth.
A LOOK AT THE `07 SCHEDULE
The 2007 schedule for Mizzou features nine NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago, including the defending National Champion, Oregon State. The Tigers will take on OSU in the final game of the Spring Training Classic in Surprise, Ariz. in the second week of the season.
The Tigers will open the 2007 campaign with this weekend's three-game series at Florida International.
Next week, Missouri travels to Arizona to first take on Arizona State on Feb. 15, before heading to the Spring Training Classic, Feb. 16-18.
The three-week road trip to open the season will conclude with the Service Academy Classic at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn., Feb. 23-25, where MU will play four games (vs. BYU, Akron, Memphis and Navy) in three days.
After spending the entire month of February away from home, the Tigers will spend much of March at Taylor Stadium. The home opener for Mizzou is March 2 against Youngstown State in the first of 12 games at home in March.
Big 12 Conference play will begin on March 23, as Missouri travels to Nebraska for a three-game series with the Cornhuskers. Following that series, MU will remain in the state of Nebraska, for a contest against Creighton in Omaha, Neb. on March 27.
Midwest Ford Dealers Border Showdown-rival Kansas will open up the conference home schedule on March 30-April 1.
Other Big 12 home series include Texas A&M (April 13-15), Texas Tech (April 27-29) and Oklahoma (May 11-13), while the Tigers are on the road for matchups with Kansas State (April 5-7), Baylor (April 20-22), Texas (May 4-6) and Oklahoma State (May 18-20).
Mizzou has home-and-home games with Missouri State and St. Louis on the slate along with neutral site games against Southern Illinois, Kansas and Illinois.
The Tigers will take on SIU (April 3) and Illinois (May 15) at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill.
On April 25, Missouri and Kansas will face off at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, in a fourth meeting between the two schools on the season. The game will not count as a conference contest.
The Big 12 Conference Championships will again be held in Oklahoma City, May 23-27.
The NCAA Tournament will begin June 1 with the College World Series getting underway on June 15 in Omaha.
McARTOR ENTERS ANOTHER HALL OF FAME
The winningest coach in Mizzou Baseball history will add another honor this weekend. Gene McArtor, who won 733 games over 21 years at the helm of the Tigers (1974-94), will be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mo. this Sunday.
McArtor was an all-conference and all-district first baseman for Mizzou from 1961-63 then coached the Tigers to two Big Eight Conference Championships and compiled a record of 733-430-3 in his 21 years in the Tiger dugout.
He is already a member of the American Baseball Coaches' Association Hall of Fame, the Webster Groves High School Hall of Fame, the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame and the MU Intercollegiate Athletics Hall of Fame.
EX-TIGERS EARN ACCOLADES IN THE MINOR LEAGUES
Former Mizzou standouts Mark Alexander and Cody Ehlers each earned postseason honors for their performances last year in Minor League Baseball.
Alexander was named the Los Angeles Dodgers' Branch Rickey Minor League Pitcher of the Year, after compiling 27 saves to lead all Dodger Minor Leaguers for a second-straight season.
Alexander was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention selection in 2004, as he recorded 10 saves, which is second most in a season in Mizzou history.
Ehlers, a member of the Tampa Yankees, was voted the Florida State League's Most Valuable Player. He led the FSL in RBI (103) and doubles (35) and was fourth in hits (142). He hit .298 with 18 home runs.
As a senior at MU in 2004, Ehlers led the Tigers in nearly every offensive category and was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Big 12 Tournament.
ALL-ACCESS
Video webcast for all Mizzou Baseball home games in 2007 will be available at mutigers.com as part of the new All-Access.
All-Access is the Tiger fans home to live and archived games for Mizzou Athletics, along with coaches' shows, press conferences and much more.
For more information, visit mutigers.com and click on the All-Access icon.
ON THE AIR
Once again, KTGR 1580-AM will be the radio home of the Tigers. All of Mizzou's regular season and postseason games will air on KTGR 1580-AM in Columbia. The games can also be heard online at KTGR.com.
Tex Little will return for his 17th season of calling Tiger Baseball and will be joined in the booth by former Tiger catcher J.C. Field
UP NEXT
The Tigers will head to Arizona next week for four games.
Mizzou will take on Arizona State at the home of the Sun Devils on Thursday, Feb. 15. Missouri and ASU will then join Oregon State and Gonzaga for the Coca Cola Spring Training Tournament in Suprise, Ariz.
