Stacking Bricks: Mizzou Baseball Building Towards Success
3/5/2026 3:48:00 PM | Baseball
"Nobody likes the build but the builder," Mizzou head coach Kerrick Jackson said to ABC17 reporter Nathalie Jones, sitting in his office in mid-January, doing one of many preseason interviews looking ahead at the 2026 baseball season.
That quote would ultimately be echoed throughout preseason media interviews, a metaphor for the culmination of what Jackson has worked to establish and – build – entering his third season as head coach of the Tigers.
Seeking an eighth-straight victory, the Mizzou baseball team found itself trailing 5-4 in the sixth inning of the latter half of a doubleheader, aiming to complete the sweep of North Dakota State on Feb. 28. The person Jackson turned to hand the ball to on the mound in perhaps the highest-pressure moment of the entire season? True freshman, Isaiah Salas.
It was just the third appearance on the mound for the young lefty from The Woodlands, Texas. In the biggest moment of his young career, he gave the Tigers 2.1 innings pitched, allowing just one hit – a gutsy performance. The Tigers' offense capitalized in the eighth, responding with three runs to win the game, 7-5, extending the winning streak to eight games – the longest for Mizzou Baseball since a nine-game heater early in 2023.
"That was so awesome," senior reliever Ian Lohse said. "I was ear-to-ear grinning at that point, because it was just the coolest thing to watch him go out there and do what he did with all the other freshmen."
After a couple of hard-fought wins, Lohse and Salas each earned the right to place a brick on their stack, symbolizing their two victories in the afternoon. Salas had the strong outing in the second game of the double header while Lohse pulled double duty, earning the save in both wins. It's safe to say, they both earned it.
"I got to put one of the bricks down, which was fun," Lohse said. "They hand it to us and then us, as players, were like, 'Oh you put it down!'"
Even while Lohse was on the mound trying to maintain a two-run lead over the Bison, he was constantly getting reminded of what was at stake with a victory.
"Lohse is coming in for his second save of the day and all you hear guys saying is, 'Get that brick! Go get that brick!'" Jackson said.
The new stack of bricks was introduced to the team before the series against the Bison last weekend. The stack is a visual of the team's three core values: accountability, respect and connection.
"In order for you to be able to build something, you have to have a solid foundation, and our solid foundation has to be based on the idea of them understanding and living those core values," Jackson said.
The stack itself is a base of three black cinder blocks labeling each of the core values. On top of the blocks are a variety of bricks, each symbolizing a victory in the 2026 season. The bricks themselves have a color-code: black are non-conference victories, gold are SEC victories and tiger stripe are series-clinching victories.
While it has only been implemented for a short time, the stack of bricks has already taken off throughout the clubhouse. Jackson wants the stacks of bricks to become a yearly occurrence – something for players to look back on and memorialize their successful seasons.
"The idea of giving them something that they can attach to and get excited about is really cool," Jackson said. "My vision is that these guys 10 years from now will come back and say, 'That year we had this many bricks and we ended up in a regional' or whatever the case may be."
This idea was always in the mind of Jackson, but he just needed a way to find the right time to implement it. While his first two seasons at the helm of the program didn't have the immediate results he may have hoped, he figured now was the right time to truly begin the upwards build. Lucky for the Mizzou baseball team, there was something nearby to symbolize Jackson's message.
"I've used the North End Zone project as a reference," Jackson said. "Like every day it gets better, but when it first started, it was just an empty space with a bunch of dirt. The only guys that enjoy that process are the guys that are doing it because they love what they do."
"Nobody likes the build but the builder."
The building trend wasn't something out of normality for Jackson. He has a previous track record of taking teams to new heights. Starting at Southern University, he took a program to a regional that didn't experience a winning season in over eight years. The same occurrence happened in Memphis in 2023 as he led the charge for a winning season for a program that hadn't experienced one since 2017. So, while Jackson's first two seasons didn't go as planned, the blueprint for the build exists.
"There is no timeframe on getting something the way you want it to be," Jackson said.
It is safe to say the building process is starting to bear fruit after eight-straight victories and a 10-2 start for the Tigers. One thing Jackson is noticing in his team early this season is the development of leadership within the program from guys who have now been in the program under Jackson for three seasons and have experienced the highs and the lows.
"We have guys that have been with us now going into our third year, so they have a full understanding of how we want things to be and how we want to go about it," Jackson said.
A great example of this is junior catcher Mateo Serna. Jackson started Serna in 24 games his freshman season in 2024, something that many people questioned at the time. However, the investment into Serna that Jackson made is starting to come into fruition both as a leader on the field as well as in the locker room.
"If you have the right kids, and you can take the time to allow them to grow and develop, you will bear the fruit of that," Jackson said.
Serna has been taking his previous experience and putting it to good use already this season, as he has slugged two home runs thus far to rank second on the team. From behind the plate, Serna has witnessed firsthand the improvements the pitching staff has made, a unit that ranks eighth nationally in hits allowed per nine innings (5.91), 33rd in strikeouts per nine (10.9) and 37th in ERA (3.45). Serna credits the improvement to the new additions to the coaching staff, including new pitching coach, Drew Dickinson.
"They come in and they have a plan for everybody," Serna said. "They want to make sure everyone's getting better."
Getting better has always been the goal for the Tigers and it is safe to say that process has been set into motion for a squad that is hungry to win as they approach SEC play.
"It's just getting better every day and making sure you stack every day on top of each other," Serna said.
Stacking seems to be a trend for the squad, as they want not only to stack days, but to make that stack of black and gold bricks as tall as possible. The team wants to see that stack of bricks continue grow, understanding that a stack of around 32-35 bricks would put the team in a good position for a regional given their schedule.
The Tigers are enjoying the hot start but remain focused on the bigger goals they hope to still accomplish.
"Right now people talk about the winning streak but that's not our goal," Serna said. "Our goal is to make a regional and to get to Omaha."
Mizzou will aim to keep things rolling this weekend when they welcome UIC to town for a four-game series at Taylor Stadium, Thursday through Sunday.
