CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - Freshman Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) hit his first career home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to send Mizzou to a 2-0, walk-off win over Sam Houston State on Friday afternoon (Feb. 20) at Whataburger Field in game two of the Kleberg Bank College Classic. That homer backed another sensational start by junior Reggie McClain (Duluth, Ga.), who tossed a complete-game shutout, striking out four while walking none with just four hits. Mizzou goes to 5-1 on the season with the win.
McClain, the reigning SEC Pitcher of the Week, has now tossed 17.0 shutout innings this season, the longest such streak by a Tiger since Jace James (Oklahoma City, Okla.) opened his Mizzou career with 19.1 straight in 2013. He is the first Tiger pitcher to toss a complete-game shutout since former second-round draft pick Rob Zastryzny did so at Georgia on April 5, 2013.
"Well I couldn't be more proud of our guys," head coach Tim Jamieson said on KTGR following the game. "Reggie pitched another great game. We played well defensively behind him and got timely hitting and that's baseball. We beat a guy that would be starting on Friday night in our league. That's a regional team, a walk-off win and it will build confidence for our team."
The win comes over a Sam Houston State team that went 43-19 a season ago while nearly advancing to a Super Regional. McClain shut down a Bearkat offense that was averaging nearly seven runs per game this season. He earned the win, his second of the season, while Andrew Godail suffered the loss, surrendering the homer to Bond in the ninth. It was the first walk-off homer for Mizzou since May 10, 2009, when Ryan Ampleman defeated Kansas on a walk-off homer. It is Mizzou's second walk-off win of the season.
McClain cruised through the first four innings, pitching around an error in the second and a stolen base in the fourth. That gave him a streak of 12.0 consecutive innings dating back to last weekend to open his Mizzou career. Mizzou then threatened in the bottom of the fourth as Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) led off the frame with a walk. But he was picked off of first base to end the threat and that sent the game to the fifth with each team posting just one hit apiece.
The reigning SEC Pitcher of the Week then worked around a two-out hit in the top of the fifth. He continued to deal through the top of the eighth inning, extending his shutout streak to 16.0 innings to open his Mizzou career. Jamieson then sent McClain back to the mound in the ninth and he was just as good as he had been all day, retiring the side in order.
That set up Bond's heroics in the ninth. After Howard tallied a one-out single, Bond came up and launched a bomb over the fence in left field for the walk-off win. Mizzou will be back in action tomorrow against host Texas A&M Corpus Christi, who defeated the Tigers 3-2 on Thursday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. and fans can listen live on KTGR. Freshman Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) will get his second career start in that game. He is 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA on the season.
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