March 7, 2008

MIZZOU VS. INDIANA STATE
MARCH 8-9, 2008 • COLUMBIA, MO

First Pitch:
Saturday, 2 p.m.
Sunday, 1 p.m. (DH)
Series History: Mizzou leads 7-5
Last Meeting:
2/26/05: MU def. ISU, 10-1
Stadium: Taylor Stadium
Capacity: 2,200
Radio: KTGR 1580-AM
Live Audio: KTGR.com
Live Stats: mutigers.com
More Information: mutigers.com

MISSOURI TIGERS
Overall Record: 6-2
Last 5: 3-2
Streak: Won 1
Rankings: BA: 5/CB: 18/ NCBWA: 18/ ESPN: 13
Website: mutigers.com
Head Coach: Tim Jamieson
Career Record: 447-310-2 (14th season)
Record at MU: 447-310-2 (14th season)

INDIANA STATE SYCAMORES
Overall Record: 1-5
Last 5: 1-4
Streak: Lost 3
Rankings: N/A
Website: gosycamores.com
Head Coach: Lindsay Meggs
Career Record: 565-255-4 (16th year)
Record at ISU: 27-26 (2nd year)

COMPLETE GAMENOTES IN PDF FORMAT

FIRST PITCH
Mizzou will open the home portion of its schedule with this weekend's series against Indiana State. The weekend's schedule has changed due to the inclement weather in Mid-Missouri. Game one of the series is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday. The teams will then play a doubleheader on Sunday starting at 1 p.m.

MIZZOU STANDS SIXTH IN BASEBALL AMERICA POLL
The new Baseball America poll released on Monday has Missouri ranked No. 6. The Tigers held the No. 5 spot the previous week, marking the highest in MU baseball history. The Tigers are the highest ranked Big 12 Conference team in the poll. Baylor is ranked 11th, ahead of 16th-ranked Texas. Oklahoma State is No. 21 in the poll. Mizzou opened the 2008 season ranked No. 6 in the Baseball America Preseason Poll. In 2005, MU was ranked No. 10 in Baseball America's Preseason Poll, it best preseason ranking prior to this year's No. 6 mark. The Tigers ended the 2007 season ranked No. 24 after compiling a record of 42-18. Missouri finds itself ranked No. 13 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll and is 18th in Collegiate Baseball's Top 30 and the NCBWA poll.

MU-ISU SERIES HISTORY
Missouri and Indiana State have met 12 previous times, with the Tigers holding a 7-5 record in those games. The first meeting between the two teams came in 1988, when Mizzou swept a two-game series. ISU won the next three games in the series before the Tigers won three in a row. Missouri has won the last two matchups with the Sycamores, including a 10-1 victory the last time the two met in 2005.

LAST MEETING
The last time Missouri and Indiana State faced off was Feb. 26, 2005 in the Service Academy Spring Classic in Millington, Tenn. The Tigers won that meeting, 10-1. MU scored eight runs in the first three innings that day, including a five-run bottom of the first. The Sycamores committed six errors in the game as MU scored the 10 runs on just six hits. James Boone drove in four of the Tigers' runs, with three scoring on his first home run of the season. Nathan Culp, then a sophomore, recorded the win as he struck out five and allowed just one run on three hits in six innings pitched.

A LOOK BACK
Mizzou concluded its eight-game season opening road trip with a 3-1 record at the USD Tournament in San Diego, Calif. last weekend. The Tigers opened the weekend with a pair of wins on Friday, defeating Cal, 7-5, before taking a 3-1 win over No. 22 San Diego State. A pair of Aaron's led the Tigers to the win over Cal as junior Aaron Crow struck out a career-best 10 batters to get the win, moving to 2-0 on the season. Sophomore Aaron Senne drove in five runs in the game, with four scoring on his first career grand slam in the first inning. In the second game of the day, junior Ian Berger turned in a career-long 7.1 innings on the hill, striking out five and allowing just one run on six hits to claim the win. Freshman Nick Tepesch and junior Scooter Hicks were solid out of the bullpen, as Hicks recorded his eighth career save by pitching the final inning. Missouri was handed its only loss of the weekend, when No. 17 San Diego took a 5-4 contest on Saturday. The loss was the second of the year for the Tigers, who have lost by just one run in each of their defeats this season. Mizzou closed the tournament with a 6-3 win over Cal Poly on Sunday. Senior Jacob Priday hit his second home run of the year and the 35th of his career in the game, extending his hitting streak to seven games. Sophomore Kyle Gibson improved to 2-0 on the year as he struck out four in six innings to take the win.

PRIDAY CONTINUES TO CLIMB MU'S RECORDS LIST
Jacob Priday has been very impressive in the early goings of his senior season. Priday enters the series with Indiana State hitting .382. He has a team-leading 13 RBI, which is second best in the Big 12, and among his 13 hits are two home runs and four doubles. The pair of homers on the year give him 35 for his career, which places him in a tie for fifth on the MU all-time home runs list with Ryan Stegall and Dave Silvestri. The school record is 45 (Mike Rogers, 1984-87). Priday is also moving up the charts in the RBI category. He enters the weekend having driven in 188 career runs, which is third all-time at Mizzou. Three more would move him into second place. The record is 222 (Ryan Fry, 1995-98).

TAKING A HIT
Through the first two weeks of the season, the Tigers have already been hit by a pitch 24 times. Missouri was hit by 22 pitches in the first week alone, averaging 5.5 HBPs per game through the first four games. The Tigers had three-straight games from Feb. 23-25 in which six batters were hit by pitches. The school record for hit-by-pitches in a year is 108, set in 2005. MU came close to breaking that record last year, with 107 HBPs. If it were to keep up the current pace, Missouri would finish the regular season with 168 hit-by-pitches.

TIGERS PICKED SECOND IN BIG 12 POLL
The Big 12 Conference baseball coaches have picked Mizzou to finish second in the league, according to the 2008 Big 12 Preseason Poll. The Tigers garnered 71 points, including one first-place vote, finishing behind only Texas, who received 80 points, including eight first-place votes. The ranking is the highest for the Tigers since the start of the Big 12 Conference in 1997. Their previous best came in 2006, when the coaches voted Missouri third. Last season, MU was selected eighth in the preseason poll, but ended the year in second place.

FOR OPENERS
Mizzou's 7-1 win over UConn in the season opener improved its record to 9-4-1 in openers under Head Coach Tim Jamieson. That includes a 0-0 tie against San Jose in 2001, when the game was called after six innings due to poor weather conditions with no score Missouri has won its first game of the year in five of the last six seasons. The Tigers started the year 3-0 for the second-consecutive season.

Aaron Crow NAMED PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
Mizzou junior pitcher has been named to multiple Preseason All-American teams. Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association have all selected Crow as a Preseason All-American. Crow was a first team All-Big 12 selection last season, leading the Tigers with nine wins on the year, compiling a 9-4 record with a 3.59 ERA. He struck out a team-high 90 batters on the season and had two complete games. He was also named to the preseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, which is given to the nation's top player.

CROW, GIBSON EARN SUMMER LEAGUE RECOGNITION
Pitchers Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson were each listed among Baseball America's top prospects of the Cape Cod League. Crow and Gibson each spent last summer in the Cape Cod League, which remains one of the most talented leagues in summer baseball. Crow was named by Baseball America as the No. 1 prospect of the league. He had a Cape Cod best 0.67 ERA and touched 98 mph on the radar gun pitching for Falmouth. Baseball America quoted one National League scouting director as saying, "If the draft was tomorrow, Crow would go No. 1." Gibson, who also pitched for Falmouth, was rated as the third best prospect in the league. He struck out 51 batters in his eight starts, recording a 1.17 ERA.

TIGERS MAKE IT FIVE-STRAIGHT NCAA TOURNAMENTS
Mizzou is one of just 18 schools in the nation that has advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last five seasons. Only two Big 12 schools (MU and Texas) can make that claim. The Tigers have made NCAA Regionals in each of the last five seasons and last year hosted the school's first-ever Regional. In 2006, Mizzou advanced to the Super Regionals for the first time in school history.

COMING BACK
The Tigers earned high preseason rankings in large part to what they have returning from a year ago. Of the 21 letterwinners from the 2007 season, 16 return in 2008, including eight of the 11 pitchers that saw playing time. The probable top four starting pitchers heading into the season all saw significant time on the mound last season, led by juniors Aaron Crow and Rick Zagone who were MU's top two pitchers last year. Sophomore Kyle Gibson spent most of last year working out of the bullpen, but will be in line for a weekend starting role this year. Junior Ian Berger spent part of 2007 as the Tigers' Sunday starter and returns in 2008. The top arms out of the bullpen from last year returning in 2008 include junior Ryan Gargano (1.73 ERA in `07), junior Scooter Hicks (six saves in `07) and sophomore Greg Folgia (26 appearances in `07). Behind the plate for MU is sophomore Trevor Coleman, who was the Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 2007. In the infield, junior third baseman Kyle Mach is the lone returner, while senior shortstop Lee Fischer and sophomore second baseman Greg Folgia gained experience as back-up players in 2007. Four experienced outfielders return for the Tigers as seniors Jacob Priday and Kurt Calvert, junior Ryan Lollis and sophomore Aaron Senne are competing for the three spots. Priday, Lollis and Senne were regulars in the lineup last year and Calvert has played in 41 games in his two previous seasons with MU.

ALL-ACCESS
Video webcast for all Missouri Baseball home games in 2008 will be available at mutigers.com as part of Mizzou 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 is in his 17th season of calling Tiger Baseball and is joined in the booth by Hudson Guthrie, who is in his first year on the Tiger broadcast team.

MIZZOU ON TV
Two of the Tigers' 2008 games have been selected to be televised. The Mizzou Sports Network has announced it will air the middle game of MU's series against Oklahoma State on April 5 at Taylor Stadium. The game can be seen on FSN Midwest and MetroSports. First pitch has been moved to 4 p.m. to accommodate the television schedule. Missouri's series finale at Texas A&M on April 27 will be broadcast on FSN as part of the network's television contract with the Big 12 Conference. That game will start at 1 p.m. in College Station, Texas. The possibility does remain for networks to add more games to the television schedule.

UP NEXT
This weekend's series opens a 12-game homestand for the Tigers. Mizzou will host Toledo next weekend for a three-game series at Taylor Stadium. MU will host South Dakota State for two-games March 18-19 and then open up Big 12 Conference play with a three-game set against Baylor, May 21-23.

TIGERS FOR TIGERS
Mizzou Athletics is teaming up with Auburn and Clemson Universities to save and protect wild tigers. You can help support "Tigers for Tigers" by making a donation to the World Wildlife Fund. For more information visit tigers.missouri.edu. Help Mizzou with the "Tigers for Tigers" challenge and save the tigers species.