No. 21 Mizzou Falls at Top-Ranked LSU

Saturday, May 9

Baton Rouge, La.

7:30 PM

University of Missouri

28-23, 14-12

LSU

42-8, 18-7

Mizzou

LSU

5/9/2015 11:25:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

BATON ROUGE, La. - No. 21 Mizzou baseball dropped game two of its series at top-ranked LSU, 8-2, on Saturday night (May 9) at Alex Box Stadium. LSU starter Alex Lange allowed just two hits and one run over 7.0 innings as he earned the win, moving to 9-0. Sophomore SS Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) homered off of Lange in the seventh inning, his fourth of the season and just the second off of Lange this season.

The loss drops the Tigers to 28-23 and 14-12 in SEC play this season. Freshman righty Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) was charged with the loss, falling to 7-4 on the season. LSU tagged him for five runs (four earned) on six hits as she walked just one and struck out three.

After a nasty first inning from Houck, LSU got to the Tiger freshman in the second inning with a pair of two-out runs. Chris Chinea ripped a double into the corner in right field to score the first run and he was then tripled home by Chris Sciambra. Houck struck out Danny Zardon to get out of the frame.

LSU got two more off of Houck on a two-run homer by Chinea in the bottom of the fourth inning, his second hit of the day. Lange continued to deal as Mizzou's only hit through six innings came in the fourth, a two-out single by Josh Lester (Columbus, Ga.), who extended his hitting streak to a career-long 12 games. It is the longest by a Tiger this season.

LSU added another run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth inning. Howard then launched his fourth homer of the year to lead off the seventh, a solo shot into the bleachers in left field. LSU got that run back in the bottom of the frame on an RBI single by Mark Laird. A two-run, two-out single by Conner Hale extended the lead to 8-1 moving to the eighth inning.

The Tigers threatened in the ninth and got another run on a Case Munson (St. Charles, Mo.) single, but it was too little, too late for the Tigers.

Postgame Notes

Junior Josh Lester singled with two outs in the fourth inning, extending his hitting streak to 12 consecutive games, the longest such streak by a Tiger this season and a career-long for Lester.
Sophomore Ryan Howard launched his fourth homer in the seventh inning. It was just the second homer allowed by LSU starter Alex Lange in 2015.
Junior Austin Tribby made his SEC-leading 30th appearance of the season on Saturday.
Mizzou has now homered 26 times over the last 20 games after having just 10 in the first 30 games.

Tracking the Tigers
No. 21 Mizzou and No. 1 LSU will play game three of their series tomorrow at 2 p.m. on SEC Network. Junior Peter Fairbanks (4-4, 2.64 ERA) will get the ball for Mizzou while LSU has not announced a starter for the game. For all the latest on Mizzou baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouBaseball.