@MizzouBaseball Uses Two-Out Hitting To Take Opener at Kentucky, 9-3

Thursday, May 19

Lexington, Ky.

5:30 p.m. (CST)

University of Missouri

26-27, 9-19

Kentucky

30-24, 13-15

Mizzou

Kentucky

@MizzouBaseball Uses Two-Out Hitting To Take Opener at Kentucky, 9-3

5/19/2016 8:09:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mizzou Baseball used a barrage of two-out hits to defeat Kentucky, 9-3, in the series opener Thursday night (May 19) at Cliff Hagan Field. After going on top, 1-0, with a two-out RBI single in the fourth, Mizzou tallied five two-out hits to score four more runs in the fifth inning to break the game open. That was all the run support that Mizzou starter Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) needed as he tossed a complete game with eight hits and three earned runs while striking out nine with just one walk to earn his fifth win of the year. He did all of that on just four day's rest.

Kentucky's Zack Brown took the loss, his 11^th of the season, as Mizzou tagged him for 12 hits over 7.0-plus innings with eight runs (all earned) while walking three and striking out four. The Tigers pounded out 14 hits, their most in SEC play as five players tallied multi-hit games. Mizzou moves to 26-27 on the year and moves closer to an SEC Tournament berth as its SEC record now stands at 9-19 on the year.

Mizzou had a chance to score off of Brown in the first inning as a one-out walk by Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.) and Ryan Howard's (St. Charles, Mo.) 12^th double of the year put runners on the second and third with one out. But Brown got Zach Lavy (Auxvasse, Mo.) to pop up and then Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) bounced out to strand a pair.

After Brown appeared to settle in, Mizzou got to him in the fourth inning as a two-out double to right center by C Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) scored Lavy all the way from first to give Mizzou a 1-0 lead. It likely would have been more runs, but Howard was caught stealing after a leadoff single, his second hit of the day. The double was Bond's second hit of the day as well.

Mizzou then continued its trend of two-out hitting in the fifth inning. After Brown got the first two outs, Kirby McGuire (Round Rock, Texas) ripped a single into right field to get the rally started. Ring doubled, Howard singled, Lavy doubled and Harris knocked a single up the middle and those five hits led to four runs as Mizzou broke the game open in the top of the fifth.

Houck responded with an easy 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fifth while picking up his third strikeout of the game. Mizzou added another run in the top of the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by Ian Nelson (Lake St. Louis, Mo.) after Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) tallied his first extra-base hit of SEC play with a double to lead off the inning. Sharp advanced to third on a wild pitch before Nelson's sacrifice fly.

Mizzou then added three in the eighth inning, two coming on a base-loaded double into right center by McGuire. UK tagged Houck for three runs in the eighth inning, two on a homer by Zach Reks, but he was lights out in the ninth, picking up two more strikeouts to end the game.

Mizzou and Kentucky will be back in action tomorrow at 11 a.m. (CT). That game time was changed due to forecasted inclement weather tomorrow evening. The game will no longer air on SEC Network+ but will still air on KTGR in the Mid-Missouri area. 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

Opening statement…
"Well-played game. We pitched it well. We played really good defense and got great hitting."

On the two-out hitting Thursday…
"This is a typical Missouri win and the type of Missouri that we strived to be all year. We really beat a pretty good pitcher. Tanner did a great job and we made some really good plays behind him."

Game Notes

Mizzou now leads the all-time series with UK, 6-4.
Mizzou moves to 1-2 on Thursdays this season with the win.
Junior SS Ryan Howard tallied hi 17^th multi-hit game of the season, doubling in his first AB and singling in his second. He tallied his third three-hit game of the year on Thursday.
Brett Bond's RBI double in the fourth inning gave him his 12^th multi-hit game of the season. Of those 12 multi-hit games, nine have come during SEC play. Bond tallied his second three-hit game of the season on Thursday and first since April 17 vs. LSU.
Senior 1B Zach Lavy tallied his 18^th double of the season in Mizzou's four-run fifth inning. It was SEC-leading 34^th extra-base hit of the season. His 18 doubles are second in the SEC and the most at Mizzou since 2010 when Aaron Senne hit 22.
Lavy tallied his team-leading 19^th multi-hit game of the season.
OF Trey Harris tallied his first multi-RBI game since April 29 vs. Tennessee on Thursday.
Freshman Brian Sharp tallied his first extra-base hit of SEC play, doubling to lead off the sixth inning. Sharp tallied his first multi-hit game since March 19 at Florida. It was his sixth multi-hit outing of the year.
2B Ian Nelson tallied his first RBI since May 1 vs. Tennessee with his sacrifice fly in the sixth inning.
OF Kirby McGuire tallied his first bases-loaded hit of the year on a two-run double to right center in the eighth inning. Mizzou now is 21-for-65 with the bases loaded this season. Thursday was McGuire's third multi-RBI game of the year.
Mizzou's 13 hits are the most since pounding out a season-high 17 hits against Missouri State on April 26. It was Mizzou's 18^th game with 10-plus hits and the eighth time in SEC play.
RHP Tanner Houck tossed his third complete game of the year and fourth 9.0-inning outing. He tallied his third game with 10 or more strikeouts this season.