March 10, 2009
MIZZOU vs WESTERN ILLINOIS
| Date | Tuesday, March 10, 2009 |
| First Pitch | 6:30 p.m. |
| Location | Taylor Stadium (Capacity: 2,200) |
| Radio | KTGR 1580-AM / KTGR.com |
| Live Video | All-Access on mutigers.com |
| Gametracker | mutigers.com |
FIRST PITCH
For the second time in a week, Missouri will host Western Illinois at Taylor Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Last Wednesday, the two teams met in the Tigers' home opener with Mizzou taking an 8-0 win. The Tigers utilized nine pitchers in the game and used a four-run eighth inning to seal the victory. MU is 6-8 on the year after taking three-of-four from Ball State last weekend. Western Illinois is 0-6 and has not played a game since it faced Missouri last week. Tuesday's contest is the final game of a six-game homestand for Mizzou. MU is 4-1 through the first five games of that stretch. This game will also be the final outing before Mizzou opens up Big 12 Conference play. This weekend, the Tigers will travel to Austin, Texas for a three-game series against the Texas Longhorns to open league play. Texas is ranked No. 1 in this week's Baseball America poll.
SERIES HISTORY
Mizzou leads the all-time series with Western Illinois 20-5 after picking up an 8-0 win over the Leathernecks last Wednesday. Last year, WIU took a 5-3 win over Missouri in Columbia. Before last year's meeting, the Tigers had won five-straight over the Leathernecks. The first meeting between Missouri and WIU came in 1978 when the teams split at two-game series with Western Illinois taking an 8-0 win followed by a Mizzou 5-2 victory.
LAST MEETING
Missouri 8, Western Illinois 0
March 4, 2009 -- Taylor Stadium
Missouri defeated Western Illinois, 8-0, last Wednesday in its home opener at Taylor Stadium. Mizzou used nine pitchers in the game, with each turning in one inning of work. Sophomore Kelly Fick was credited with the win, his first of the season. He pitched a 1-2-3 second inning, striking out two of the three batters he faced. Senior Ryan Lollis extended his hitting streak to seven games with a single in the bottom of the first inning. He would score after three wild pitches by WIU starter Eric Eden to put the Tigers up 1-0. Lollis drove in Mizzou's second run of the game as junior Michael Liberto scored on a sacrifice fly by Lollis. Juniors Greg Folgia and Kyle Mach each had RBI singles in the fifth inning as the Tigers extended their lead to 4-0. Missouri then scored four times in the bottom of the eighth, which included a two-run single by Lollis and an RBI base hit from junior Aaron Senne. Lollis was 3-for-4 on the night with three RBI and three runs scored. Senne had two hits and drove in one.
TIGER PITCHERS SET CAREER MARKS AGAINST BALL STATE
Missouri had two pitchers set new career highs in strikeouts in last weekend's four-game series with Ball State. Junior Kyle Gibson struck out 13 in Friday's series opener. He allowed just one run on six hits and walked only one batter in eight innings pitched to move to 2-1 on the year. Gibson's previous career best was 11 against Toledo last March. On Sunday, sophomore Nick Tepesch struck out a career-high 12, picking up his first win of the season. It was the second straight Sunday in which Tepesch set a new career best after he struck out eight against Arizona State on March 1. In addition, senior Ian Berger matched his career high with nine strikeouts against Ball State in game two of Saturday's doubleheader.
HICKS MOVES UP MISSOURI'S ALL-TIME SAVES LIST
Senior Scooter Hicks picked up two saves last weekend in the Ball State series and has recorded a save in each of his last three appearances. The three saves give him 14 for his career, which places him in a tie for fourth place all-time at Missouri. He is tied with Jeff Cornell (1976-78) and is two behind third-place Travis Wendte (2002-06). Scott Black holds the MU record with 19 career saves (1987-90).
FRESHMEN STEP UP FOR MIZZOU
Heading into the game with Western Illinois, freshman Conner Mach is hitting .435 and has seven RBI. Last weekend, Mach was 7-for-13 (.538) against Ball State. Mach played in three of the four games against BSU. Of his seven hits, three were doubles and he hit a home run, his first of his career. He was 6-for-9 in the doubleheader on Saturday, then was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer in Sunday's series finale. Fellow freshman Ryan Gebhart is hitting .333, having played in seven games for MU this year, starting twice. In his first career start last Friday, Gebhart drove in the Tigers' first two runs of the game on a bases loaded single to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead. Another freshman, Ben Turner has played in 10 games already this year, starting four times. On the pitching side, Mizzou has seen contributions out of the bullpen from freshmen Jeff Emens (six appearances), Ryan Clubb (four appearances) and Brian Carr (three appearances).
LOLLIS LEADS TIGERS AT THE PLATE
Through the early stretch of the season, senior Ryan Lollis has been the Tigers' most consistent performer. Lollis is hitting .340 and has a team-best 15 RBI. He has recorded a hit in 12 of Missouri's 14 games and has had two three-hit games (against Gonzaga on Feb. 22 and against Western Illinois on March 4). Lollis had an eight-game hitting streak from Feb. 22 March 6. Of his 18 hits on the year, five have gone for extra base hits. He has three doubles, one triple and had a home run against Gonzaga. Last Wednesday against Western Illinois, Lollis drove in three runs, going 3-for-4 against Western Illinois. He also scored three runs against WIU. Lollis was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in last June's Major League Baseball Draft, but passed up a chance to turn professional to return to MU.
JAMIESON MOVES INTO SECOND PLACE ON MU'S ALL-TIME WINS LIST
With Missouri's win over Arizona State on March 1, Head Coach Tim Jamieson moved into second place on Mizzou's all-time wins list. Jamieson is 486-337-2 in his 15th year as the Tigers' head coach. His 486 wins put him ahead of legendary former head coach John "Hi" Simmons. Simmons compiled a record of 481-294-3 from 1937-1973, while Gene McArtor is the all-time winningest coach at Missouri with a record of 733-430-3 from 1974-1994. Jamieson, who served as an assistant coach under McArtor from 1988-94, has led the Tigers to seven NCAA Regionals, including each of the last six and is a two-time Conference Coach of the Year. Last fall, the University of Missouri extended Jamieson's contract, keeping him in the MU dugout through at least the 2013 season. With the retirement of Texas Tech's Larry Hays last summer, Jamieson and Baylor coach Steve Smith are now the longest tenured coaches in the Big 12 Conference, as each is in his 15th year as head coach of the respective programs.
ON THE AIR
Once again this year, KTGR 1580-AM is 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 19th season of calling Tiger Baseball and is joined in the booth by Hudson Guthrie, who returns for his second year as part of the Tigers' broadcast team.
ALL-ACCESS
Video webcast for all Missouri Baseball home games in 2009 is 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.
UP NEXT
Missouri will open Big 12 Conference play this weekend with a three-game series against Texas in Austin. Game one of the series will begin at 6 p.m. on Friday, with game two set for 2 p.m. on Saturday and the series finale scheduled for 1 p.m on Sunday. Next Wednesday, MU returns to Taylor Stadium to take on SIU-Edwardsville at 6:30 p.m. The Tigers will host Texas A&M in a three-game series March 20-22 in Columbia to open the home portion of the conference schedule.