March 13, 2008
MIZZOU VS.TOLEDO
MARCH 14-16, 2008 • COLUMBIA, MO
First Pitch:
Friday, 4:30 p.m. [NOTE TIME CHANGE]
Saturday, 2 p.m. [DOUBLEHEADER]
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Series History: 0-0
Last Meeting: No Prior Meetings
Stadium: Taylor Stadium
Radio: KTGR 1580-AM
Live Audio: KTGR.com
Live Video: mutigers.com
Live Gametracker: mutigers.com
FIRST PITCH
Mizzou will continue its homestand with a series against Toledo, which has been expanded to a four-game set. The series will get underway at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, with a doubleheader scheduled to start at 2 p.m. on Saturday and the series finale set for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
The Tigers are 9-2 on the year and have won four straight after sweeping a three-game series with Indiana State last weekend. Toledo is 5-5 on the season. This will be the first ever meeting between the Tigers and Rockets.
MIZZOU MOVES UP TO FOURTH IN BASEBALL AMERICA POLL
The new Baseball America poll released last Monday has Missouri climbing to the No. 4 spot, its highest ever ranking in the poll.
The Tigers are the highest ranked Big 12 Conference team in the poll. Baylor is ranked 10th, ahead of 19th-ranked Texas and 23rd-ranked Oklahoma State.
Mizzou opened the 2008 season ranked No. 6 in the Baseball America Preseason Poll.
Missouri finds itself ranked No. 11 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll, 14th the NCBWA poll and 17th in Collegiate Baseball's Top 30.
TIGERS OFF TO BEST START SINCE 2004
Mizzou's 9-2 start to the season is the best since the 2004 team opened the year, 11-2.
In 2004, the Tigers lost their 14th game of the season, then tied their next game with Washington.
Missouri was also 11-2 to open the 1991 season, before losing their next game.
The best start prior to that was a 14-0 start to the 1985 season.
MU-UT SERIES HISTORY
Toledo is one of two teams on MU's 2008 schedule that the Tigers have never faced. UConn is the other.
LAST TIME OUT
Missouri opened its 2008 home schedule by sweeping a three-game series with Indiana State last weekend at Taylor Stadium.
The Tigers took a 5-1 win in their home opener on Saturday, as junior Aaron Crow allowed just two hits in seven shutout innings on this mound to pick up his third win of the year.
On Sunday, the teams played a doubleheader, with MU taking two wins.
In Sunday's first game, sophomore Greg Folgia delivered a two-out double in the bottom of the ninth inning to drive in sophomore Trevor Coleman with a game-winning run. Sophomore Aaron Senne brought the score to an 8-8 tie with a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh. It was his second homer of the day, as he also connected on a two-run shot in the sixth. Junior Ian Berger allowed just one run, which was unearned, on three hits in six innings, but took a no decision.
Mizzou completed the sweep of the doubleheader and of the series with a 6-2 win in Sunday's nightcap. Sophomore Kyle Gibson turned in a career-long 7.1 innings on the mound, striking out nine to improve to 3-0 on the year. Coleman had a pair of hits, as did senior Kurt Calvert, who hit his first career home run in the eighth inning.
BIG 12 SEASON OPENS THIS WEEK FOR ALL BUT MIZZOU AND OU
While Missouri and Oklahoma will host a non-conference series this weekend, the rest of the Big 12 Conference will open league play.
Highlighting the conference schedule is a mathcup of ranked teams as Oklahoma State takes on Baylor. Texas Tech and Texas A&M will square off in College Station, while Kansas visits Texas and Nebraska takes on Kansas State.
The Tigers will open take on Baylor next weekend it their Big 12 opener.
SENNE DELIEVERS BIG AT THE PLATE
In the second game of last weekend's series with Indiana State, sophomore Aaron Senne hit two home runs, driving in five runs.
He followed a two-run homer in the sixth inning with a three-run shot in the seventh, which tied the game at eight. Senne became the first Tiger to hit two home runs in a game since Jacob Priday did it against Louisville in last year's NCAA Regional.
It was Senne's second five-RBI game already this season, as he also drove in five against Cal on Feb. 29.
Senne leads the team and is tied for fifth in the Big 12 with 17 RBI on the year. His three home runs are tied for seventh most in the conference.
Through Senne's first 47 games last season he had hit just two home runs. He closed out 2007 with five home runs in the final 12 games and has three through the first 11 games this season, giving him eight home runs in his last 23 games.
BERGER, WELL DONE
Senior Ian Berger leads the Tigers with a 0.59 ERA heading into the Toledo series. Berger is 1-0 on the year and has allowed just two runs (only one of which was earned) in 15.1 innings pitched this season.
Berger's ERA is fourth best in the Big 12 Conference. He has allowed just two earned runs in his last five appearances dating back to last season, a span of 23.1 innings.
Berger has started twice this season, earning the win as he allowed just one run on six hits in seven innings pitched against San Diego State. Along with his team-best ERA, he leads the squad with an opposing batting average of .170.
SHARING THE SAVES
The Tigers have five saves as a team this year, with four pitchers earning those five saves. Mizzou had four pitchers earn saves all of last season.
Junior Scooter Hicks has two saves on the year, which gives him eight for his career. Freshmen Nick Tepesch and Kelly Fick have each recorded a save this season, along with sophomore Ryan Allen.
TAKING A HIT
Through the first three weeks of the season, the Tigers have already been hit by a pitch 30 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 150 hit-by-pitches.
Sophomore Trevor Coleman and senior Lee Fischer have each been hit by five pitches this season, while senior Dan Pietroburgo and junior Kyle Mach each have four HBPs.
PRIDAY CONTINUES TO CLIMB MU'S RECORDS LIST
Jacob Priday has been very impressive in the early goings of his senior season. Priday is hitting .382, which ranks 12th in the Big 12 Conference. Among his 13 hits, two home runs and four doubles. He has missed the last three games due to injury.
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).
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.
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.
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 18th 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
MU will host South Dakota State for two-games March 18-19. Game one of the two-game set will start at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday with the second game slated for 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
Mizzou will open Big 12 Conference play next weekend with a three-game series against Baylor, which will get underway at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.