Houck’s Gem Not Enough as @MizzouBaseball Falls to Vanderbilt in 11 Innings

Saturday, March 26

Columbia, Mo.

5 p.m.

University of Missouri

14-11, 0-5

Vanderbilt

19-4, 3-2

Vanderbilt

Mizzou

Houck’s Gem Not Enough as @MizzouBaseball Falls to Vanderbilt in 11 Innings

3/26/2016 9:33:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Photo Gallery

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Sophomore RHP Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) was sensational as Mizzou Baseball dropped game two of its series with No. 4 Vanderbilt, 2-0, in 11 innings on Saturday night at Taylor Stadium. Houck worked a masterful 9.0 shutout innings, allowing just two hits while striking out 14 Commodore hitters, the most strikeouts by a Tiger hitter since Kyle Gibson fanned 15 on April 3, 2009, against Oklahoma. Houck had just one fly ball leave the infield as he had 11 groundouts, one flyout and a pop up to second to go along with his 14 strikeouts. The only two hits he gave up were ground balls off the bat of Ro Coleman and one of those two was an infield hit.

Mizzou's offense certainly had its chances and likely needed just one run to escape with the win, but Mizzou went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position on Saturday and missed multiple chances to give Houck the win. The loss drops Mizzou to 14-11 on the year and 0-5 in SEC play.

Junior SS Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) tallied his first multi-hit game since March 6 against UIC to lead Mizzou's offense, with one of his two hits being a double. Shane Benes (Town & Country, Mo.), Zach Lavy (Auxvasse, Mo.) and Ian Nelson (Lake St. Louis, Mo.) also tallied hits in the loss with Nelson's lone hit registering as his third career double.

But the story on Saturday was Houck. He retired the first 12 batters he faced until a leadoff walk in the fifth inning. The only time Vanderbilt threatened to score on Houck was after a leadoff error in the sixth inning and a one-out single put runners on the corners with one out. Jeren Kendall then flew out to center field, but Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.) gunned the go-ahead run at the dish to preserve the shutout.

Vanderbilt then threatened again in the top of the ninth inning after a leadoff infield single by Coleman. He was moved to second base after a pair of outs and Houck, on his 119^th pitch, struck out Will Toffey to strand the go-ahead run at second base.

Mizzou nearly won the game for Houck in the bottom of the ninth. Lavy led off the frame with a single through the right side and went to second base on a wild pitch with no outs. Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) then struck out swinging and after an intentional walk, Benes hit into a double play to end the threat.

Vanderbilt then scored two runs on another two-out rally. Reliever Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.) got the first two batters of the frame, but a single, a walk and two more singles plated two runs, handing Mizzou the loss. Bartlett took the loss, falling to 1-2 on the year.

Game three of the series will be Sunday at 12 p.m. on SEC Network with Steve Lenox and Gabe Gross on the call. For all the latest on all things Mizzou Baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on twitter @MizzouBaseball and like the team on Facebook and Instagram (Mizzou Baseball).

Hear From Mizzou
Head Coach Tim Jamieson

On Tanner Houck's start…
"You'll have to ask him, but I'm sure he feels real good about his outing. We only needed one run to win the ballgame. What he did in the ninth inning too, that was pretty special."

On what he told Tanner with the go-ahead run in scoring position with two outs in the ninth inning…
"At that point in the game, just focus on the batter – don't worry about the baserunners. He has a tendency to sometimes get distracted by a baserunner and the baserunner meant nothing, just go after the hitters."

On if there was any debate about putting Houck back out for the ninth inning…
"I couldn't take him out. Pitch count got a little nervous for me, not from a performance standpoint, but it got to that point where I was glad the inning went as quick as it did."

On missing opportunities with runners in scoring position or moving runners over…
"We had our opportunities. To win games against opponents like that, you need someone to step up there and get a base hit. Even if we move the runner, we still have to do something after that. It's disappointing and it's frustrating, but we faced a guy that darn near matched Tanner pitch-for-pitch. I am proud of the way we competed, especially after last night, but it doesn't make it feel any better."

RHP Tanner Houck

On his outing…
"I felt like I had command on all my pitches tonight. Those were the key. Then I just got back to what I do best – pound the zone and get outs quick."

On rebounding from a few tough starts…
"I found something different in my delivery that I had been doing the last couple weeks. I went back and watched some video from last year to this year just found one minor kink and got it straightened out this week."

On how he felt in the start…
"Felt great through the whole start. I was hoping he would let me go out there more but the pitch count got up there after the ninth. Don't want to get hurt this early in the season."

Postgame Notes

Mizzou now trails the all-time series, 0-12.
Mizzou falls to 4-6 on Saturdays this season.
Tanner Houck struck out a career-high 14 batters on Saturday. His previous career-high was nine done on multiple occasions. His 14 strikeouts are the most by a Tiger pitcher since April 3, 2009, when Kyle Gibson fanned 15 Oklahoma batters.
Houck had 14 strikeouts, 11 groundouts, one popout to second and a flyout to center as only one ball hit in play in the air left the infield. He allowed just two hits and one of the two hits was an infield hit.
Every batter in the Vanderbilt order struck out at least once on Saturday.
Mizzou is now 0-5 this season against top-10 teams and Mizzou has played five consecutive games against top-five teams.
Freshman Connor Brumfield walked to leadoff the game and he has now reached base safely in 11 consecutive games.
DH Brian Sharp walked in the second inning and has now reached base safely in nine straight games.
SS Ryan Howard tallied his eighth multi-hit game on Saturday. It is his first multi-hit game since March 6 against UIC (a span of 10 games).