OXFORD, Miss. – Mizzou redshirt junior RHP Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.) made an emergency start and pitched Mizzou Baseball past Ole Miss, 9-3, in the series opener Friday night (April 21) at Swayze Field. Bartlett made his first start of the season and fourth of his career after a rain delay did not allow scheduled starter Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) enough time to warm up.
Bartlett pitched a career-high 9.0 innings for his first career complete game while allowing just two earned runs on 10 hits without a walk to move to 5-0 on the year. He allowed three hits to open the game and two runs in the first, but then settled in to allow just seven hits over the next 8.0 innings without a walk while picking up three strikeouts. He was the beneficiary of great Mizzou defense all night, getting 14 groundball outs, including four double plays.
Mizzou's offense was highlighted by homers from junior C Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) and sophomore OF Connor Brumfield (Columbia, Mo.), the first of his career. Bond hit a two-run shot in the second and Brumfield hit a solo shot in the third. Mizzou then added one run in the seventh, three in the eighth and two in the ninth to put the game away. The Tigers tallied seven hits in the game with six going for extra-bases (two homers, four doubles)
Bartlett earned the spot start as ta rain delay did not allow scheduled starter Houck enough time to warm up as a decision to start the game at 7:10 p.m. was made at 6:45 p.m. Head coach Steve Bieser elected to go with Bartlett at that point and Ole Miss tallied three consecutive hits to open the game and that led to two runs in the first. But Bartlett dazzled from there.
Bond tied the game with his eighth homer of the year, a two-run shot on a 1-0 count in the second inning, after Nelson Mompierre (Miami, Fla.) led off the inning with his sixth double of the year. Bond has five of his eight homers on the year in SEC games with all five coming over the last four SEC games.
Brumfield then lifted a 2-2 pitch over the wall in right field for his first career homer, staking Mizzou to a 3-2 lead. He has now reached base in 24 consecutive games, the longest streak by a Tiger since Brett Peel reached base safely in 30 straight during the 2015 season.
Both pitchers settled in from there and McArthur actually retired 11 in a row before issuing a leadoff walk to Mompierre to open the seventh inning. Ole Miss then went to the bullpen and nearly got out of a two-on, no-out spot after a pair of outs. But Alex Samples (Bridgeport, Texas) hit a huge two-out double into left field to extend Mizzou's lead to 4-2.
Mizzou then tacked on three unearned runs in the eighth inning, one coming on an error and two more on a Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) double. Bartlett then tossed another zero on the scoreboard with a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Junior OF Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) tacked on a two-run double in the ninth to extend the lead to 9-2. Ole Miss got an unearned run thanks to a passed ball and an RBI single in the ninth, but Mizzou turned its fourth double play to cap the win.
Game two of the three-game series is slated for Saturday at 4 p.m. on SEC Network+. For all the latest on all things Mizzou Baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team @MizzouBaseball and like the team on Facebook and Instagram (Missouri Baseball).
Potent Quotables
Head Coach Steve Bieser
Opening statement…
"Well-played ballgame here. Really proud of the way that we got things going offensively after early when we couldn't string anything together. We were fortunate to get the two-run homer from Bond and then the solo shot from Brumfield to get us back on top after Cole had – I didn't think it was a bad first inning but they came in and put some good swings on him. Our team just kept coming back and coming back. They persevered like we talked about. It doesn't matter how it looks, it's about getting it done and I thought the guys did a great job of making sure that they stayed the course and then you look up at the end of the game and you somehow found a way to win a game with seven hits."
On changing from Tanner Houck to Cole Bartlett…
"Well a lot of it came into play when we had the storms blow up t when it wasn't even visible an hour before and then all of a sudden we were hammered with a good hard downpour. We know what we are dealing with when running Tanner out there and then we have a rain delay and he'd have to sit. All those things came into play and we just didn't want to take the chance of having Tanner out there without being sure that he could go the distance. We knew Cole could do that.
Postgame Notes
- The all-time series between Mizzou and Ole Miss is now tied at 8-8
- Mizzou moves to 6-4 on Friday nights this season
- Mizzou is now 14-8 in three-game series this season.
- Mizzou is now 8-8 in SEC play and 5-2 vs. the SEC West this season.
- Mizzou is 6-1 on the road in SEC play this season, the best road conference start for Mizzou since before joining the Big 12.
- Mizzou's nine runs Friday are its most in a Friday night game this season.
- Six of Mizzou's seven hits on Friday went for extra-bases. Mizzou's four doubles are its most in SEC play and most since hitting six on April 11 vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
- Brett Bond's two-run homer in the second gives him a new career-high single season total with eight. Five of his eight homers have come during SEC games and all five have come over the last four SEC games (four vs. UK, one Friday night at Ole Miss).
- Sophomore OF Connor Brumfield hit his first career homer in the third inning. That extended his streak of consecutive games reaching base safely to 24, the longest streak by a Mizzou player this season.
- Brumfield also tallied his 15th multi-hit game of the year, a team-best.
- Ole Miss starter James McArthur had allowed just one homer all year before surrendering two in the first three innings to Mizzou.
- Cole Bartlett made his first start of the season and fourth of his career. It was his first since May 7 of last year at Mississippi State.
- Bartlett pitched a career-high 9.0 innings on Friday night in the emergency start.
- Bartlett is the only Mizzou pitcher to throw 7.0 innings without a walk this season and he did not allow one at all in the complete game
- Junior 3B Alex Samples tallied eight assists on Friday night, the most by a Tiger this season and second-most by an SEC player this year (Ole Miss' Tate Blackman had 10 vs. Southern Miss on April 4).
- Pinch runner Johnny Balsamo stole his second base this week, Mizzou's 64th of the year. That's tied for 15th nationally.
- Trey Harris' two-run double gives him 42 RBI on the year, the third-most in the SEC and a new career-high total.
