April 6, 2010
MIZZOU vs. SIU-EDWARDSVILLE
Date: April 6, 2010
First Pitch: 6 p.m.
Series History: Mizzou leads 13-3
Last Meeting: MU def. SIUE, 4-1 (3/18/09)
Stadium: Taylor Stadium
Radio: KTGR 100.5-FM / 1580-AM
Live Audio: KTGR.com
Live Video: mutigers.tv
Live Gametracker: mutigers.com
MIZZOU vs. ILLINOIS
Date: April 7, 2010
First Pitch: 7 p.m.
Series History: Tied 10-10
Last Meeting: MU def. IU, 12-5 (5/15/07)
Stadium: Busch Stadium
Radio: KTGR 100.5-FM / 1580-AM
Live Audio: KTGR.com
Live Gametracker: mutigers.com
FIRST PITCH
Mizzou has a pair of midweek games this week, starting with a matchup with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Tuesday ... First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Taylor Stadium ... On Wednesday, the Tigers will be at Busch Stadium in St. Louis to take on Illinois. Missouri is 15-11 on the year, while SIUE is 7-19 on the season and Illinois is 11-10 overall ... The Tigers are 13-3 all-time against SIU-Edwardsville ... The series between MU and IU is tied at 10-10 ... Wednesday's matchup with Illinois will be played with wood bats ... Mizzou will return to Big 12 play this season as it travels to Norman, Okla. for a three-game series with Oklahoma ... The Tigers are 2-4 in league play, while OU has a 3-4 record in the Big 12.
LAST TIME OUT
Missouri went 1-2 last weekend in a three-game series with Baylor at Taylor Stadium. After dropping both games of a Saturday doubleheader to the Bears, the Tigers managed a 13-9 win in Sunday's finale. Rain on Friday night forced two games to be played on Saturday. Baylor scored 15 runs between the seventh and eighth innings and went on to run-rule the Tigers in Saturday's opener. Baylor finished of the doubleheader sweep with a 7-3 win in game two. Junior Nick Tepesch turned in a career-long 8.2 innings pitched, but was saddled with the loss. MU managed to avoid a sweep by taking a 13-9 victory on Sunday. Freshman Dane Opel had three doubles on Sunday and the Tigers erased an early 5-0 lead to claim a come-from-behind victory.
MIZZOU-SIUE SERIES HISTORY
Missouri holds a 13-3 lead in its all-time series with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. Last year, the two teams met at Taylor Stadium, with the Tigers taking a 4-1 victory. SIUE put the first run of the game on the board in the top of the first, but was held scoreless the remainder of the game by MU. Missouri scored all of its runs in the third and fourth innings and used its Johnny Wholestaff approach in the game, utilizing 11 pitchers on the night.
MIZZOU-ILLINOIS SERIES HISTORY
The series between the Tigers and Illinois is tied at 10 heading into Wednesday's matchup. The last time the two teams met was in 2008, when Mizzou recorded a 12-5 win over IU in a wood bat game in Sauget, Ill. This will mark the first time the two have met at the new Busch Stadium. Last fall, Mizzou defeated Illinois in football in a matchup at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis and the MU men's basketball team defeated Illinois in December at the Scottstrade Center in St. Louis.
SENNE CLIMBING SEVERAL LISTS IN MU RECORD BOOK
Aaron Senne had back-to-back two-double games on March 28-30 to set a new record for career doubles at Missouri. After doubling in consecutive at-bats against Texas A&M on March 28 to move into a tie for first with Ryan Fry (1995-98) on Mizzou's career doubles, Senne went 5-for-5 with a home run and two doubles against Purdue on March 30 to break the record. He now has 59 doubles, putting him atop that list. Senne has 12 doubles on the year, which ranks second in the Big 12. His .426 average is second best in the conference. He leads the team with eight home runs on the year and has 34 home runs for his career, which puts him eighth all-time at Missouri. He is one away from moving into a tie with Ryan Stegall (1999-2001) and Dave Silvestri (1986-88) for sixth place. Senne is tied for fourth in school history with 184 RBI. He currently stands fifth with 250 career hits, which is 24 behind the career record holder Jayce Tingler (2000-03). Senne returned to Mizzou this season for his senior year, passing up a chance to join his hometown Minnesota Twins organization. A native of Rochester, Minn., he was drafted by Minnesota in last June's Major League Baseball Draft, but chose to return to Missouri. Senne hit his first home run of the season and drove in four against Washington on Feb. 20. At the Auburn Classic, Senne hit three home runs in a span of two games. He homered twice against Auburn on Feb. 27, finishing 3-for-5 with four RBI in the game. The next day, he homered against Boston College.
MU IS ONLY TEAM WITH THREE-STRAIGHT 16-BIG 12 CONFERENCE WIN SEASONS
Missouri is the only team in the Big 12 Conference that has won at least 16 conference games in each of the last three seasons. MU was 19-8 in 2007, then went 16-11 in both 2008 and 2009. The Tigers Big 12 record over the last three years is 51-30, which is second best in the Big 12 behind only Texas (53-27-1).
OPEL RECORDS MU'S FIRST THREE DOUBLE GAME SINCE 2002
Freshman Dane Opel was 3-for-4 in the final game of the three-game series with Baylor last weekend, with all three hits being doubles. He is the first Tiger to record a three-double game since Brad Flanders did it against Louisiana-Monroe in 2002. In his last five games, Opel is hitting .600 with four doubles, two home runs and nine RBI. He has had multiple hits in each of the last five games he's played in, including three hits against Purdue on March 30, when he drove in four runs. In Big 12 games, Opel has a .529 average to lead the team. He went 4-for-5 in his debut as a Tiger on Feb. 20 against Washington and had a hit in each of the first three games in which he has played.
NICHOLAS ADAPTS QUICKLY TO MIZZOU
Junior Brett Nicholas had an eight-game hitting from March 7-19, hitting .522 during the streak with three home runs and 12 RBI. He has recorded a hit in 17 of the 25 games in which he's had an at-bat this year and he has 11 multi-hit games. Nicholas has had at least two hits in six of the last seven games, hitting .406 (13-for-32), with 11 RBI over that stretch. On the year, Nicholas is hitting .355 with five home runs and a team-leading 32 RBI. Earlier in the year, he hit .444 with a slugging percentage of 1.444 in the three games against North Dakota. He had a home run in the series opener, then hit two homers in the first game of a Friday doubleheader. Nicholas hit .625 (5-for-8) in the Xavier series (March 12-14). He opened the series by going 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI in Friday's extra-inning victory, then drove in two runs on Saturday, finishing 1-for-2 with a single and a walk. On Sunday he was 1-for-2 and drew two walks.
UP NEXT
This weekend, Missouri will travel to Norman, Okla. for a three-game series against Oklahoma. Game one of the series is Friday at 6:30 p.m., with games to follow at 2 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday. Saturday's game will be televised on FSN.