@MizzouBaseball Walks Off in Extras, Bests WCU 7-6

Wednesday, March 8

Columbia, Mo.

4:00 p.m.

University of Missouri

12-1

Western Carolina

5-7

Western Carolina

Mizzou

3/8/2017 8:33:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Glendinning’s single to right gives Mizzou its third walk-off of the season

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Baseball extended its win streak to 12 after a walk-off single through the right side by junior Robbie Glendinning (Scarborough, Australia) in the bottom of the 10^th to defeat Western Carolina, 7-6. Mizzou's 12 consecutive victories marks the longest win streak for a Mizzou team since 2008 and ties Louisville for the longest active streak in the nation this season.

Freshman LHP T.J. Sikkema (DeWitt, Iowa) earned his third win of the season after throwing the final 3.2 innings, striking out six while allowing just one hits and no walks. He now owns a personal 19.2 inning streak without a run charged to him. In that span, he has 31 strikeouts and just 10 hits allowed as he continues to be lights out.

Glendinning led Mizzou offensively with three hits, reaching in four of his five plate appearances, including the game-winning hit in the 10^th. Junior C Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) also stayed red hot, belting his team-leading third homer of the season, a two-run shot in the first. Junior Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) also homered, a no-doubt shot to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh.

HIGHLIGHTS: Relive #Mizzou's 7-6 walk-off win over WCU. Tigers push the win streak to nation-leading 12!#MIZ #C2E ??? pic.twitter.com/6Fn4BBzhQm
— #MizzouBaseball (@MizzouBaseball) March 9, 2017

Western Carolina threatened in the first after a one-out double and a walk, but Mizzou starter Liam Carter (Highland Park, Ill.) induced a 5-4-3, inning-ending double play to escape the jam. Bond hit his two-run homer in the bottom of the first, a two-run, two-out shot to center. That was his seventh consecutive hit dating back to last Sunday's finale against UIC and his team-leading third homer of the season. He walked during his next at bat, reaching base in eight straight plate appearances.

The Catamounts loaded the baes off of Carter in the second and a bases-loaded double by Cameron Blaquiere off of reliever Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.) plated three runs. All three runs were charged to Carter as WCU took a 3-2 lead.

Mizzou tied the game on a safety squeeze by Chris Cornelius (St. Louis, Mo.) with runners on the corners. Sophomore Connor Brumfield (Columbia, Mo.) nearly gave Mizzou the lead, but a hot shot to short was caught and Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) was doubled off second to end the inning.

A balk and an error led to a two-run inning for Western Carolina in the fifth. Mizzou got one run back in the bottom of the frame as Glendinning led off the inning with a triple. He was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Alex Samples (Bridgeport, Texas).

Mizzou tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI double by Cornelius. Mizzou loaded the bases in that frame, but Samples struck out to strand them loaded. WCU then took the lead on a two-out, RBI single by 1B Caleb Robinson of off Sikkema, but the run was charged to Bartlett as Sikkema kept his streak alive.

Harris tied the game with a monster solo home run over the Mizzou bullpen in left field and through the goal posts on Mizzou Football's practice fields. Kameron Misner (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) hit his second double of the game right after Harris' bomb, but he was stranded on a strikeout and a fly out.

Sikkema was lights out in the ninth, striking out the side to give him five on the game. Harris drew a one-out walk in the ninth, but Mizzou couldn't cash in.

Moving into extras, Sikkema remained strong retiring three consecutive batters to bring the Mizzou offense back to the plate. Sharp got the bats going with a leadoff double to left and reached third on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Cornelius. An intentional walk to Brumfield set up the double play for WCU, but Glendinning made them pay with the walk-off single to end the ballgame.

Mizzou hosts Appalachian State in a three-game series this weekend at Taylor Stadium. 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 and missouri_baseball, respectively).

Potent Quotables

Head Coach Steve Bieser
On Wednesday's win…
"It was a game of ups and downs. We had some good moments and some bad moments. The resiliency of them bouncing back every time something goes wrong. We had to play from behind a lot. We should've – the frustrating part is that we jump on them and here's a team that has had some tough travel and then all of a sudden we don't do the job on the mound to go back out after we score. We walked a guy and allowed them to have energy and get through this game. It was just ups and downs. To come out on top, it shows you a little but about the makeup and character of these guys right now."

Junior DH Robbie Glendinning
On his walk-off hit …
"I love that. As a competitor you want to be in that situation. I figured the pressure was on him, so I just tried to get a good pitch to hit."

On the win streak…
"Really just all of as a team bonding together. Everyone has been doing their job and we've just been consistent."

Notes

Mizzou won in walk-off fashion for the third time this season.
With the win, Mizzou has now won 12 in a row, the longest Mizzou streak since 2008.
The 12-game win streak ties Louisville for the longest win streak in the nation this season (both are active).
The extra innings affair was the first game to go to extras for Mizzou this season.
Robbie Glendinning reached base five times, including the game-winning single.
Kameron Misner ripped a pair of doubles tonight, upping his season total to five, second-best on the team.
Mizzou has 41 doubles in 13 games which ranks them second in the SEC in two-baggers, trailing only Kentucky which has 42.
T.J. Sikkema picked up six strikeouts, three looking, and now has racked up 15 backwards Ks, an SEC best.
After working 3.2 innings tonight, Sikkema extended his scoreless streak to 19.2 innings. During the stretch he's tallied 31 strikeouts and given up a mere 10 hits.
After homering and drawing a walk in his first two at bats, Brett Bond had reached safely in eight. consecutive at-bats. He finished the night 1-4 to go along with the base on balls.
Chris Cornelius knocked in a pair of runs to push his season RBI total to 12, placing him third on the team.
Mizzou has scored nine of their last 17 runs with two outs.
Tonight was the 10^th time in 13 games that Mizzou has had double-digits hits.
Tonight's ballgame was the first meeting between Mizzou and Western Carolina with Mizzou now holding a 1-0 lead in the all-time series.
Trey Harris extended his hit streak to eight games with a game-tying bomb over the left field fence in the bottom of the seventh.