No. 18 Tigers Tackle the Tide, 4-3

Friday, April 17

Columbia, Mo.

6:05 PM

University of Missouri

25-13, 11-5

Alabama

19-17, 6-10

Alabama

Mizzou

4/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

Timely hitting Tigers prove too much for the Tide

COLUMBIA, Mo. - No. 18 Mizzou Baseball (25-13, 11-6) defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide (19-17, 6-10), 4-3, on Friday (April 17) night in front of a season-best Friday night crowd of 1,763.

Junior righty Reggie McClain (Duluth, Ga.) pitched his longest outing in four games, going 8.2 innings while surrendering just one earned run to the Crimson Tide. McClain struck out five and walked only one batter. In 10 appearances this season, McClain has not walked more than three batters in a contest.

Alabama jumped out to a one-run lead in the top of the first inning, taking advantage of a pair of fielding errors by the Tigers. The Tigers responded in the bottom of the second after a leadoff double by Josh Lester (Columbus, Ga.), his sixth of the season. Lester advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) and scored on a groundout to second base by Zach Lavy (Auxvasse, Mo.).

Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo) led off the fourth inning with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch and later scored on a double play ball by Harris. Back-to-back singles spurred a two-run fifth inning capped off by RBI from Brett Peel (St. Charles, Mo.) and Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.), making it 4-1 Mizzou.
Alabama was able to string together timely hits in the eighth and ninth to bring the game close, but closer Breckin Williams (Oronogo, Mo.) was able to get Chandler Avant to ground out to second base with two runners on to end the game and tally his ninth save of the season.

Postgame Notes

Josh Lester hit his sixth double of the season in the bottom of the second. It was his third double in as many games
Zach Lavy drove in his 21st RBI on the season.
Lester singled in the bottom of the fourth. It was his ninth multi-hit game on the season.
Lavy had his ninth multi-hit game of the season.
Jack Klages hit in the bottom of the fifth gave him five hits in the last four games.
Klages has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games.
Jake Ring's single in the bottom of the fifth gave him 42 hits on the season, tops on the team.
Ring also stole his seventh base in the bottom of the fifth.
Entering the bottom of the seventh inning, Reggie Mclain had retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced.
Reggie McClain pitched 8.2 innings, giving him 66.0 innings pitched this season. This gives him the SEC lead in innings pitched, just ahead of LSU's Jared Poche.
Breckin Williams recorded his ninth save of the season, tying him for third in a single season in school history with Jeff Cornell and Keaton Steele.
Friday's win over Alabama marked Mizzou's ninth on-run win of the season.