Tuesday, April 18
Columbia, Mo.
6:30 PM
University of Missouri
vs
Missouri State
@MizzouBaseball Hosts In-State Foe Missouri State
4/18/2017 9:24:00 AM | Baseball
First pitch set for 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+
| IN-STATE RIVAL MISSOURI STATE VISITS TAYLOR STADIUM | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPPONENT | LOCATION | DAY | TIME (CT) | Listen | Stats | Watch |
| Missouri St. | Taylor Stadium | Tuesday, April 18 | 6:30 p.m. | KTGR | Stats | SEC Network+ |
- Mizzou Baseball closes a six-game homestand Tuesday night against in-state foe Missouri State, renewing one of college baseball's best rivalries. The game will air live on SEC Network+ and KTGR in the Mid-Missouri area and first pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. at Taylor Stadium.
- Dating back to 2012, the series has been a back-and-forth affair, with the series tied at 5-5. However, Missouri State has won three of the last four after winning both meetings in 2015 with a split last year. Mizzou has won three of the last five meetings played at Taylor Stadium with the only losses in that span coming in 2015 and 2013. The 2013 contest scheduled for Taylor Stadium was rained out before being postponed later in April. \
- With 26 wins, Mizzou Baseball has already matched its win total from a year ago. With 19 regular season games remaining, Mizzou is on pace for its best win total in quite some time under first-year head coach Steve Bieser. Mizzou has won 30+ games just twice since 2010 (33 in 2012, 30 in 2015) and is on pace to break the 30-win plateau this season. Mizzou is also 7-8 in SEC play after winning just nine games in conference a year ago. Mizzou's best SEC win total was 15 in 2015.
- Mizzou had quite the week offensively last week, slugging 11 homers over five games. Nine of the 11 homers came from juniors Trey Harris and Brett Bond who had five and four, respectively. Freshman OF Kameron Misner and sophomore 1B Brian Sharp had the other two. What made Harris and Bond's performances stand out was that eight of those nine homers came over the weekend vs. SEC East-leading Kentucky. Harris homered in four consecutive at-bats, including a three-homer game Saturday. Bond hit a pair of homers Saturday as well and hit solo shots on Friday and Sunday. Mizzou is on pace for 52 homers this year, which would be the most by a Mizzou team since 2010.
- Mizzou junior OF Trey Harris was named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week, announced Monday. He is the first Mizzou player to earn the distinction since Tanner Houck took home the award on March 28 of last season. This is the first time Harris has earned the award as well.
- Harris had a monster week for Mizzou, helping the Tigers to a 3-2 record in five games. Harris slugged five homers, including homering in four consecutive at-bats during the Kentucky series on Friday and Saturday. Harris homered three times in the Saturday game, making him the first Tiger with three homers in a game since Jacob Priday hit a school-record four in a 31-12 win over Texas on April 11, 2008. Harris now sits third in the SEC with 11 homers, the most by a Mizzou player since 2012. He drove in eight runs last week and scored seven more.
- Over his last nine games, Harris is hitting .353/.463/1.059 with eight homers, 14 RBI, 12 runs and six walks.
- Mizzou will send junior RHP Andy Toelken to the mound on Tuesday night to face Missouri State's Austin Knight. Toelken is coming off of his best start in a Missouri uniform last Tuesday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. He tossed his first Division I complete game in that start and allowed just two hits while striking out a career-high seven. The two hits he allowed were back-to-back two-out knocks after he took a no-hitter through 5.2 innings. He allowed a double that just clipped the left field line and then a single that just sailed over the glove of SS Chris Cornelius as he missed the no-hit bid and shutout by less than a foot. It will be his first start vs. Missouri St.
- Knight is making his second career start against Mizzou. Last year, Knight tossed 5.0 shutout innings, allowing just five hits with five strikeouts in his third win of the season, a 16-1 triumph for Missouri State.
The two teams split last year's series. MO State won 16-1 in Springfield. Mizzou won 17-6 in Columbia. - Mizzou has hit the home stretch of its schedule with five weeks remaining in the regular season. Of Mizzou's remaining 19 games, 17 are against teams currently in the RPI top 50. Mizzou sits at No. 53 in this week's RPI. The Tigers played just nine games vs. RPI top 50 in the first 37 and have a chance to improve their RPI and NCAA Tournament resume over the final five weeks. Mizzou is 4-5 vs. RPI top-50 teams. Below are the four wins:
- Kentucky (#7)
- Arkansas (#18)
- Houston (RPI #14)
- Western Carolina (RPI #93)
Pitching Matchup
-
Tuesday
RHP Andy Toelken (2-1, 3.46 ERA) vs. RHP Austin Knight (2-1, 3.41 ERA)
Harris Named National Player of the Week
- Mizzou Baseball junior OF Trey Harris was named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week, announced by the publication Monday morning (April 17). He is the first Mizzou player to earn the distinction since Tanner Houck took home the award on March 28 of last season. This is the first time Harris has earned the award as well.
- Harris had a monster week for Mizzou, helping the Tigers to a 3-2 record in five games. Harris slugged five homers, including homering in four consecutive at-bats during the Kentucky series on Friday and Saturday. Harris homered three times in the Saturday game, making him the first Tiger with three homers in a game since Jacob Priday hit a school-record four in a 31-12 win over Texas on April 11, 2008. Harris now sits third in the SEC with 11 homers, the most by a Mizzou player since 2012. He drove in eight runs last week and scored seven more.
Harris on Fire Last Nine Games
- Not only did Harris have a tremendous five games last week, he has been on an absolute tear over the last nine games. He is hitting a team-best .353 with eight homers and 12 runs, 14 RBI and six walks in that span. He is reaching base at a .463 clip with a 1.059 slugging percentage, good for a 1.522 OPS as well. He leads the team in batting, runs, hits, homers, RBI, walks, slugging and OBP in that span.
- Another key reason for Harris' improvement this season has been his approach at the plate - take balls and mash strikes. That shows with his increased walk production. Harris had just 27 career walks entering the season and he has already set a career-high with 29 this season, a mark that ranks third in the SEC.
- Harris was having a good season through the first 28 games, but the last nine have put his stats among the best hitters in the SEC. Below is a look:
-
Stat First 28 (per game) Last Nine (per game) Total % Increase/game SEC Rank Batting .276 .353 .298 27% NR Homers/game 3 (0.11) 8 (0.89) 11 709% 3rd RBI/game 26 (0.93) 14 (1.56) 40 67% 4th Runs 18 (0.64) 12 (1.33) 30 107% 14th Total Bases 37 (1.3) 36 (4.00) 73 207% 13tth
Bond Mashes, Too
- As good as Trey Harris was last week, junior C Brett Bond was equally as impressive and one could argue that his numbers were actually better than Harris'. Bond hit .462 last week (6-for-13) and pounded four homers and a double while driving in six runs and scoring five more. He hit all four of his homers during the three-game Kentucky series, homering in all three games including two on Saturday. He actually slugged 300 points higher than Harris on the week with a 1.462 clip while boasting a 1.924 OPS.
Brumfield Sets The Tone
- Sophomore CF Connor Brumfield has been a tone-setter at the top of the lineup for Steve Bieser and the rest of Mizzou's coaching staff. He has reached base safely in 22 consecutive contests entering the Missouri State game, the longest streak by a Tiger this season. During those 22 games, Brumfield is hitting .326 with 15 runs, 16 RBI and 18 walks while reaching base at a team-high .441 clip.
- What makes his 22-game stretch remarkable is that he is reaching base at a .484 clip when leading off an inning (15-for-31). Not only is he keying big innings by reaching base and scoring, he is also doing a tremendous job extending innings when hitting with two outs during his 22-game streak. In fact, he is hitting .333 with two outs during those 22 games and leads the team with 11 two-out RBI in that span.
Houck Moves Up Career Charts
- Mizzou junior ace RHP Tanner Houck now has 257 career strikeouts after striking out seven Kentucky batters last Friday. That ranks him tied for fifth in Mizzou program history with Chris Robertson who had 257 from 1991-94. Only Aaron Crow (277) and Kyle Gibson (304) have tallied more strikeouts in their first three seasons than Houck. Both Crow and Gibson were first-round picks and have both pitched in the big leagues.
- Houck has at least five starts left in the regular season. In his career, he is averaging 6.6 strikeouts per start, which puts him on pace to have 290 career strikeouts, which would rank fourth in program history.
- Another stat to watch for Houck is innings pitched. He has tossed 264.1 innings in his career, just outside the all-time top-10 at Mizzou. He is on pace for 298 innings of work through the conclusion of the regular season, which would rank him eighth all-time at Mizzou and second among three-year players.
- In his career, Houck is averaging 6.2 innings per start and has made it through 6.0 innings in 33 of his 39 career starts. He has 20 starts of 7.0+ innings and 10 of 8.0+ innings as he has been one of the most consistent hurlers in all of college baseball for the last three seasons. Of his 39 career starts, 29 have been 'quality starts' which is labeled as 6.0 innings with three or fewer earned runs.
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).
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