Howard, Houck Wrap up Successful Stint with USA Baseball
7/14/2015 10:30:00 AM | Baseball
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou baseball's Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) and Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Mo.) wrapped up impressive stints with the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team (CNT) this week. Overall, the team went 9-8 against some of the world's best competition and Howard and Houck were key in many of those nine wins. Below is a look:
SS Ryan Howard – Howard hit .310 in the 17-game tour with four doubles, a homer, six runs and three RBI. He started 16 of the 17 games at short and committed just three errors while playing some of the nation's top competition. He homered in Team USA's July 4, 11-1 win over Cuba, also notching a double in that win. Howard was incredibly consistent as well, hitting .313 against lefties and .310 against righties during the summer and hit a blistering .345 with runners on base and .286 with runners in scoring position. When leading off an inning he reached base at a .455 clip as well. Just as he did with Mizzou last spring, Howard was incredible with two outs, hitting .370 on the summer while ranking third on the team in two-out RBIs. Howard had five multi-hit games, second-best on the team, and at one point put together a 13-game streak in which he reached base safely, also second-best of the team.
SP Tanner Houck – Houck was one of the headliners on a loaded Team USA pitching staff and the Tiger sophomore-to-be led the CNT in inning pitched (16.2), strikeouts (14) and walked just one batter in four appearances (three starts) while compiling a 2.16 ERA, second-best on the team among players with multiple starts. He started a team-high three games and threw 4.0 perfect innings in a combined no-hitter against Cuba on July 1. Houck limited batters to .213 hitting and allowed just one double in 16.2 innings. His WHIP for the summer was a tremendous 0.96. He was also sensational against lefties, allowing just two hits all summer (.143 average) and allowed just five two-out hits all summer. His 0.54 walks per nine led the team as did his 14-1 strikeout-walk ratio.
With Howard and Houck both returning to Mizzou in 2016, along with a talented group of returning starters, the future appears to be very bright for head coach Tim Jamieson, who signed a three-year extension after putting together one of the biggest seasons in the country in 2015.
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