Mizzou Tigers Split Series with Seton Hall
For Mizzou Tigers, feast or famine in Florida.
It looks to be an interesting season for the Mizzou Tigers. In splitting their opening series against the Seton Hall Pirates, they showed nothing resembling a middle ground. It was either dominate or be dominated. The Tigers won their games by a combined 10 runs, but lost by a combined 12.
The Tiger began their season with a 7-0 victory, thanks to a four run seventh inning and a stellar performance from starter Reggie McClain. The red shirt senior lasted eight innings, allowing four hits and striking out four. The offense gave him help in the seventh, rocking Seton Hall reliever Ryan Testani for four runs. Mizzou center fielder Jake Ring started off the run by tripling to left center, bringing in right fielder Kirby McGuire. Ring himself would score on a Brett Bond single. The Tigers would score two more runs before ending the inning, and putting the game out of reach.
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Tanner Houck would make his first appearance in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. Houck pitched six innings, striking out nine and giving up one run. Third baseman Shane Benes was the offensive hero; the sophomore drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the first, before knocking a two-run home run off of Seton Hall starter Zach Schellenger. Mizzou relievers Austin Tribby and Cole Bartlett would pitch three innings of four hit ball to close it out, and the Tigers would win 4-1.
Them things would go south for the Tigers. In the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, Seton Hall would unload on the Mizzou Tigers for the first time, winning 8-4. The Pirates would come out of the gate swinging, scoring a run in the first inning off of a Michael Plassmeyer balk. The next inning, Plassmeyer gave up a solo shot to Seton Hall second baseman Mike Caputo. Seton Hall would then stack on runs in the fourth, fifth, and ninth to seal the victory. The bright spot for the Tigers was short stop Ryan Howard’s two-run home run in the second inning, but the Tigers could not get it going, leaving eight players on base.
This would pale in comparison to Sunday’s game, a 9-1 drubbing. That game proved to be a disaster for the Tigers and starter Ryan Lee. The Pirates rang up the red shirt sophomore for a run in each of the game’s first four innings, and didn’t stop there. Seton Hall would flip the script from Friday’s game, unloading four runs in the seventh inning. Three of those runs came on a Mike Alescio double, and the fourth came earlier in the inning off a walk. The Tigers could not respond, and only scored on a wild pitch in the eighth inning.
The Tigers next play Florida International in Miami on February 24.