Missouri to Face Rival Kansas
5/6/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 6, 2010
MIZZOU at KANSAS
Date: May 7-9, 2010
First Pitch: 7 p.m. / 6 p.m. / 1 p.m.
Series History: MU leads 212-124-2
Last Year's Series: MU won 2-of-3 in Columbia
Stadium: Hoglund Ballpark
Radio: KTGR 100.5-FM / 1580-AM
Live Audio: KTGR.com
Live Video: kuathletics.com
Live Gametracker: mutigers.com
More Information: mutigers.com
FIRST PITCH
Missouri will travel to Lawrence, Kan. this weekend for a three-game series with rival-Kansas ... Game one of the weekend is set for 7 p.m. on Friday, with games to follow at 6 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. on Sunday ... The Tigers are 24-19 on the year and have a 7-10 record in the Big 12 ... KU is 26-19-1 overall and 7-10-1 in the league ... Missouri holds the lead in the all-time series, 212-124-2 ... The three games this weekend are the final road games on Missouri's regular season schedule ... Next weekend, the Tigers host Nebraska in a three-game set at Taylor Stadium.
LAST TIME OUT
Mizzou junior Brett Nicholas homered to extend his hitting streak to 19 games as the Tigers claimed an 11-6 victory over in-state rival Missouri State on Tuesday at Taylor Stadium. After falling behind 3-0 to MSU, Mizzou tied the game on Nicholas' ninth home run of the year in the bottom of the fourth inning. Missouri added two more runs in the fourth inning, with freshmen Dane Opel and Scott Sommerfeld scoring on a two-out double off the bat of senior Michael Liberto. MSU regained a one-run lead after putting three runs on the board in the top of the fifth inning, which included a homer by Aaron Conway to lead off the inning. However, senior Aaron Senne and Nicholas drew walks to open the Tigers' half of the fifth inning and junior Jonah Schmidt singled to drive in Senne, tying the game at six. Once again Liberto gave the Tigers the lead back, as he drove in his third run of the game in the sixth inning, putting Mizzou up 7-6. Sophomore Ryan Gebhart followed with an RBI single of his own and Senne drove in a run when he reached on a fielders' choice to make it a 9-6 lead. Junior Phil McCormick earned the win, his fifth of the season, after he pitched four scoreless innings, giving up just two hits and striking out five. He set career highs in innings pitched and strikeouts with the performance on Tuesday.
MIZZOU CLINCHES FOURTH-STRAIGHT BORDER SHOWDOWN TITLE
The M&I Bank Border Showdown championship trophy will remain on the University of Missouri campus for a fourth-consecutive year and for the sixth time in the series' eight seasons of existence. Missouri clinched the title on April 25 after its men's and women's golf programs topped the University of Kansas at their respective Big 12 Championship events. Missouri currently leads the Series 23-to-11.5 with a possible 5.0 points outstanding. The two schools could have an additional 2.0 bonus points become available should either team meet in postseason play at the Big 12 Tennis, Baseball or Softball championships or in the baseball or softball NCAA Tournament. Although Missouri has clinched the series crown, the Tigers have a chance to earn one of its largest victories against its arch rival in standings history. Missouri's largest win came in 2002-03 by a 32-to-8.5 margin.
SENNE BECOMES MIZZOU'S ALL-TIME HITS LEADER
Aaron Senne, who broke the school record for career doubles earlier this season, became Mizzou's all-time hits leader last Sunday. Senne had two hits against Texas Tech on Sunday, giving him 275 career hits and placing him ahead of the previous record holder, Jayce Tingler (274, 2000-2003). He added two hits on Tuesday against Missouri State, giving him 277. 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), Senne went 5-for-5 with a home run and two doubles against Purdue on March 30 to break the record. He now has 66 career doubles, putting him atop that list. Senne has 19 doubles on the year, which ranks third in the Big 12. His .419 average is second best in the conference. He hit his team-leading 12th home run of the year last Saturday against Texas Tech and has 38 home runs for his career, which puts him in a tie for fourth place on the career homers list with Griffin Moore (1997-98). He picked up his 200th career RBI on Tuesday and ranks third in that category. 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.
MIZZOU-KANSAS SERIES HISTORY
Missouri leads the all-time series with Kansas, 212-124-2. The Tigers have won the three-game Big 12 series between the two teams The two teams have also met at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City for one game in each of the last three seasons, with the Jayhawks winning each of those three games.
SENNE AND NICHOLAS A TOUGH COMBO FOR OPPONENTS
Batting back-to-back in the Tigers' lineup, Missouri senior Aaron Senne and junior Brett Nicholas have provided as strong of 1-2 punch as there is in the Big 12 Conference. Senne ranks second in the Big 12 with a .419 batting average heading into the weekend, while Nicholas' .380 mark is seventh best in the league. Senne is fifth in the Big 12 in hits (70), second in home runs (12) and third in doubles (18). Nicholas has 15 doubles on the year, which ranks ninth in the conference. Nicholas (52) and Senne (47) rank third and sixth respectively in RBI in the Big 12. Both Senne and Nicholas have put together extensive hitting streaks this year. Senne had a 17-game streak from March 17-April 14 and Nicholas is currently riding an 19-game hitting streak.
NICHOLAS ADAPTS TO MIZZOU
Junior Brett Nicholas takes an 19-game hitting streak into the week. The streak is the longest at Missouri since Jayce Tingler had a 24-game streak in 2002. During his current streak, Nicholas is hitting .418, with 10 doubles, four home runs and 22 RBI. He began the streak with six-straight two-hit games and has had two hits in 13 of the 19 games. His current streak follows an eight-game hitting streak from March 7-19, as he hit .522 during that streak with three home runs and 12 RBI. He has recorded a hit in 34 of the 42 games in which he's had an at-bat this year and he has 23 multi-hit games. On the year, Nicholas is hitting .380 with nine home runs and a team-leading 52 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).
GEBHART RETURNS
Sophomore Ryan Gebhart missed the first 34 games of the season as he recovered from an ankle injury suffered last fall. Since returning, Gebhart has had at least one hit in all nine games in which he played. He went 2-for-4 in his first game played, against Oklahoma State on April 18. He has had multiple hits in each of the last three games. He was 3-for-5 with two RBI last Saturday against Texas Tech, then had two hits and two RBI in Sunday's finale with TTU. On Tuesday, Gebhart was 2-for-4 against Missouri State. He is hitting .417, with two doubles, a triple and eight RBI since his return.
43 GAMES, 42 LINEUPS
Head Coach Tim Jamieson has utilized 42 different lineups in 43 games this year. Jamieson's lineup on April 17 against Oklahoma State was identical to the lineup the previous night vs. OSU. That was the first repeated lineup of the season. Six different Tigers have been in the leadoff spot and four have hit cleanup. The spot in the lineup with the least amount of change is third spot where only two players (Aaron Senne 33 times, Brett Nicholas 10 times) have been slotted. The seventh spot has seen the most changes, as 12 different Tigers have hit in the seven hole.
TEPESCH LEADS TIGER PITCHING STAFF
Nick Tepesch picked up his second-straight victory in the opener of the doubleheader with Kansas State on April 25. Tepesch allowed just one run on seven hits and struck out five in 7.2 inning pitched to move to 4-3 on the year. A week earlier he recorded a win against Oklahoma State, striking out eight in seven innings pitched. He allowed just two runs on four hits. Tepesch pitched at least seven innings in each of his first five starts in conference play before last Saturday's outing in which he took the loss, allowing five runs on 10 hits in 6.1 innings pitched against Texas Tech. In MU's conference opener, Tepesch turned in 7.1 innings pitched against Texas A&M, striking out four. He came within just one out of pitching his first career complete game against Baylor on April 3, when he struck out five in 8.2 innings pitched in the game, but took the loss. He struck out five and allowed three earned runs in seven innings pitched on April 9 against Oklahoma. Earlier, Tepesch picked up his first win against Auburn on Feb. 27, then struck out five in 6.1 innings pitched against TCU on March 6, but took a no decision in a 10-inning win by TCU. Tepesch allowed three runs, two of which were earned, on six hits in the game. In his start against Xavier, he left following just one inning of work after he was hit by a batted ball in the top of the first inning. Tepesch returned against North Dakota on March 19 and struck out eight in six innings pitched.
UP NEXT
Missouri will conclude the regular season with a pair home Big 12 series. The Tigers will host Nebraska on May 14-16. Gametimes for that series have been adjusted to avoid conflict with the Big 12 Track & Field Championships, which will take place at Walton Stadium, adjacent to Taylor Stadium. Games one against the Huskers will be played at 7 p.m. on Friday, with the second game at 7 p.m. on Saturday and the series finale at Noon on Sunday. Mizzou will close out the regular season with a three-game series against Texas on May 21-23 at Taylor Stadium.
