@MizzouBaseball Tops UIC, 13-5, to Win Series

Sunday, March 6

Columbia, Mo.

1 p.m.

University of Missouri

11-3

UIC

4-7

UIC

Mizzou

3/6/2016 4:47:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Baseball (11-3) won the final game of its series with UIC (4-7), 13-5, in dominant fashion with four Tigers going yard in the win. It was the first multi-home run game for Mizzou since May 2, 2015 against Ole Miss and also the most runs scored by a Mizzou team since that game as well.

CF Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.), 1B Zach Lavy (Auxvasse, Mo.), C Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) and SS Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) all homered for Mizzou as it scored a season-high 13 runs, its most since an 18-1 win over Ole Miss on May 2, 2015. That backed freshman starter Michael Plassmeyer (St. Louis, Mo.) who earned his first career win on Sunday.

Plassmeyer took the mound for Mizzou, opening the game with an eight-pitch inning. He finished the game throwing 6.0 innings with four strikeouts, no walks and four earned runs to record his first career win.

Bond dominated for Mizzou, hitting 2-for-3 on the game and driving in three RBI and tying his season-high RBI per game. His moment of the game came in the fourth as he launched a two-run blast into the bullpen for his second home run of the year.

UIC struck early with a pair of singles that put two runners on base. Alex Dee stepped up to the plate and drove a run in with a single to left field.

Howard opened the third frame with gapper to right center that landed him on second. Ring then stepped up and drove a bomb over the left field wall to drive in two runs and record his first homer of the season.

Mizzou continued to dominate as Lavy started off the bottom of the fourth with a solo homer over the left wall, tallying his first home run of the year. Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) then singled to right field to set up Bond's homer.

UIC threatened in the sixth with a single to left field that allowed a run to cross the plate. The Flames followed up with a double down the left field line by Cody Bohanek to knock in two runs.

Howard answered in the bottom of the seventh with a deep homer to left off the scoreboard, his third of the year and second of the series. That got the ball rolling for Mizzou as it added two more runs in the seventh and four in the eighth off Harris' second double of the game. A single by Bond to center field drove in Lavy and put a cap on Mizzou's day on offense.

RHP Liam Carter (Highland Park, Ill.) entered the game for Mizzou, throwing one strikeout with no walks and just two hits against nine batters faced, bringing his ERA down to 1.35 on the season.

Mizzou opens a two game series with Alabama A&M on Tuesday, March 8^th beginning at 6 p.m. For all the latest on Mizzou Baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter @MizzouBaseball and like the team on Facebook and Instagram (Mizzou Baseball).

Hear From Mizzou
1B Zach Lavy

On his approach with the wind blowing out to left…

"Well we talked about it before the game, the pitcher had a lot of two seam action, going away from lefties and into righties and Hunter (Mense) told us that if we get a ball up in the jet stream as he called it, it was going to go and it sure as heck did. I just got on the plate – a lot of us were on the plate, especially left-handed hitters."

On his homer…
"I knew I hit it well and today with all that wind, I knew it was gone. I mean I like it to be blowing out to right field because I like pulling balls, but it is better for my swing if I'm hitting to left field, especially when I'm hitting it over the fence. It's a lot of fun walking around the bases."

On the offense taking confidence from this performance...
"It's a big confidence boost. The first game on Saturday, we kind of struggled a little bit getting things going. The second game we kind of got some momentum and kept it going a lot today. Hopefully we can keep that going this midweek and then going into playing Youngstown next weekend."

C Brett Bond

On the team's approach with the wind…
"Well, I think our approach was a little different. We definitely got a lot got confidence built today knowing ourselves and knowing our swings. The guy (starting pitcher) had a little run on the ball so we tried to stay on it and take it the other way it worked out. We got it up in the jet stream it was going to keep going."

On whether he thought his homer was gone off the bat…
"Honestly, I was just glad I hit it. I didn't know. I had two strikes. I was trying to put a good swing on it. I knew the best thing to do was to take it the other way and I hit it and I got the barrel on it so I thought it could have gone."

On Michael Plassmeyer's start…
"He did a good job. Freshman, came out here and has good composure and stays within himself and is a very spotty guy. He can go in. Go out. Has a nice curveball and a nice changeup. It's fun having him in there. It's something that we are definitely going to need."

Postgame Notes

Mizzou now leads the all-time series with UIC 10-4.
Jake Ring hit his first homerun of the season and fifth of his career in the third inning
The homerun by Ring in the third inning marked the fourth and fifth RBI this series for him. He had five RBI in his previous 10 games.
Zach Lavy hit his first homerun of the season and fifth of his career in the fourth inning.
Brett Bond hit his second homerun of the season and the seventh of his career in the fourth inning.
The homeruns by Lavy and Bond marked the first time this season that Mizzou hit multiple homeruns in a single inning, the last time the team accomplished that was May 2, 2015 vs. Ole Miss.
Ryan Howard hit his team leading third homerun of the season in the seventh inning.
Howard's dinger was the team's fourth of the game, the most home runs in a single game this year. The last time Mizzou hit four homeruns in a game came against Ole Miss (May 2, 2015) they hit five homeruns that game.
Bond hit an RBI single in the seventh inning, giving him a team-high three RBI on the day. It was the second time this season Bond had three RBI in a game and the eighth time a Mizzou player has accomplished the feat this season.
Mizzou scored 13 runs, a new season-high.
Mizzou put together a new season high 32 total bases.
Liam Carter pitched two innings without giving up an earned run. He finished the series against UIC pitching 3.1 innings giving up three hits, three strikeouts and no earned runs.
Michael Plassmeyer recorded his first career win. Pitching six innings giving up seven hits and four earned runs while striking out four and walking none.