Friday, April 21
Oxford, Miss.
6:30 PM
University of Missouri
at
Ole Miss
@MizzouBaseball Opens Four-Game Road Trip at Ole Miss
4/20/2017 11:04:00 AM | Baseball
Mizzou making first trip to Swayze Field since 2014
| IN-STATE RIVAL MISSOURI STATE VISITS TAYLOR STADIUM | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OPPONENT | LOCATION | DAY | TIME (CT) | Listen | Stats | Watch |
| at Ole Miss | Swayze Field | Friday, April 21 | 6:30 p.m. | KTGR | Stats | SEC Network+ |
| at Ole Miss | Swayze Field | Saturday, April 22 | 4 p.m. | KTGR | Stats | SEC Network+ |
| at Ole Miss | Swayze Field | Sunday, April 23 | 1:30 p.m. | KTGR | Stats | SEC Network+ |
- Mizzou Baseball resumes SEC play, opening the second half of the league slate at west foe Ole Miss for a three-game series at Swayze Field. The series begins Friday night at 6:30 p.m. and resumes Saturday at 4 p.m. The Sunday finale will be at 1:30 p.m. and all three games are set to air on SEC Network+ with Richard Cross and David Dellucci on the call.
- Mizzou is playing Ole Miss for the first time since 2015 and is visiting Swayze Field for the first time since 2014. Last time Mizzou played at Ole Miss, the 14th-ranked Rebels swept Mizzou. The Friday night game was a 4-3 decision, but Ole Miss ran away with the next two games, claiming 7-1 and 8-3 triumphs in the Saturday and Sunday games, respectively.
- Mizzou is coming off of a 5-3 midweek loss to in-state rival Missouri State as a late, eighth-inning error led to the go-ahead runs for Missouri State. Ole Miss is coming off of a Wednesday win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 14-6.
- Mizzou and Ole Miss share four common opponents this season: Kentucky, Alabama, Little Rock and Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Similar to Mizzou, Ole Miss dropped two of three to Kentucky, swept Alabama and defeated Little Rock and UAPB during midweek contests as both teams are a combined 6-2 against those teams. The two SEC series are flip-flopped as far as home and away is concerned. Ole Miss played Kentucky in Lexington and Alabama in Oxford while
- Mizzou played Kentucky at home and Alabama on the road, the only difference in the series.
- Both teams went 7-8 in the first five weekends of SEC play. Mizzou is tied with Vanderbilt for fourth in the East while Ole Miss checks in at sixth in a loaded western division.
- Mizzou enters this weekend at 5-1 on the road in SEC play, marking the first time since the 1990s that Mizzou has opened 5-1 through six league road games.
- Mizzou junior OF Trey Harris was named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week, announced Monday. He is the first Mizzou player to earn the distinction since Tanner Houck took home the award on March 28 of last season. This is the first time Harris has earned the award as well.
- Harris had a monster week for Mizzou, helping the Tigers to a 3-2 record in five games. Harris slugged five homers, including homering in four consecutive at-bats during the Kentucky series on Friday and Saturday. Harris homered three times in the Saturday game, making him the first Tiger with three homers in a game since Jacob Priday hit a school-record four in a 31-12 win over Texas on April 11, 2008. Harris now sits third in the SEC with 11 homers, the most by a Mizzou player since 2012. He drove in eight runs last week and scored seven more.
- Over his last nine games, Harris is hitting .353/.463/1.059 with eight homers, 14 RBI, 12 runs and six walks.
- Mizzou has hit the home stretch of its schedule with five weekends remaining in the regular season. Of Mizzou's remaining 18 games, 16 are against teams currently in the RPI top 50. Mizzou sits at No. 53 in this week's RPI. The Tigers played just 10 games vs. RPI top 50 in the first 38 and have a chance to improve their RPI and NCAA Tournament resume over the final five weeks. Mizzou is 4-6 vs. RPI top-50 teams. Below are the four wins:
- Kentucky (#7)
- Arkansas (#18)
- Houston (RPI #14)
- Western Carolina (RPI #93) - Mizzou is coming off of a 5-3 midweek loss at home to in-state rival Missouri State Tuesday night. The game was tied 3-3 before a two-out, bases-loaded error in the eighth inning led to the game-winning runs for the Bears. Mizzou stranded nine runners in the game and went just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Pitching Matchups
-
Friday
RHP Tanner Houck (3-5, 2.93 ERA) vs. RHP RHP James McArthur (2-2, 3.03 ERA) -
Saturday
LHP Michael Plassmeyer (4-1, 3.71 ERA) vs. LHP David Parkinson (5-2, 2.68 ERA) -
Sunday
RHP Bryce Montes De Oca (3-2, 3.06 ERA) vs. RHP Ryan Rolison (4-2, 2.19 ERA)
Series History
- Mizzou and Ole Miss have met 15 times over the years and six times since the Tigers joined the SEC. Ole Miss holds a slight 8-7 lead in the all-time series and leads 4-2 since Mizzou joined the SEC in the 2013 season.
- The two teams last met during the 2015 season when Mizzou took two of three games. Mizzou won the first game of the series, 4-2, behind 7.0 innings from Reggie McClain, who struck out six and allowed just two earned runs on four hits. Josh Lester drove in the winning run of that game in the sixth inning. With Tanner Houck on the bump in game two, Mizzou exploded for 18 runs in an 18-1 win as Houck tossed 6.o shutout innings, striking out eight and scattering just four hits. Mizzou then lost the Sunday game, 4-3.
- Now juniors and then freshmen Brett Bond and Trey Harris were the only current Mizzou position players to see action in that series. Bond hit .545 (6-for-11) with two doubles and a homer while driving in six runs and was named SEC Freshman of the Week for his efforts. Harris went 4-for-12 with four runs, three RBI and a homer in that series as well.
- In 2014, Mizzou was swept in Oxford. Mizzou lost the opener, 4-3, as John Miles had to make an emergency start in that game as Friday night starter Brett Graves (now in the Oakland As organization) was hit in the head with an errant throw while heading down to the bullpen to warm up. Mizzou then lost the next two games, 7-1 and 8-3, as the No. 14-ranked Rebels swept the series.
- The two teams played twice in the 2008 NCAA Coral Gables Regional, splitting a pair of meetings, including a 7-0 win for Mizzou. Coincidentally, Mizzou was then sent to the Oxford, Miss., NCAA Regional the next year in 2009 but did not play Ole Miss.
Harris Named National Player of the Week
- Mizzou Baseball junior OF Trey Harris was named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week, announced by the publication Monday morning (April 17). He is the first Mizzou player to earn the distinction since Tanner Houck took home the award on March 28 of last season. This is the first time Harris has earned the award as well.
- Harris had a monster week for Mizzou, helping the Tigers to a 3-2 record in five games. Harris slugged five homers, including homering in four consecutive at-bats during the Kentucky series on Friday and Saturday. Harris homered three times in the Saturday game, making him the first Tiger with three homers in a game since Jacob Priday hit a school-record four in a 31-12 win over Texas on April 11, 2008. Harris now sits third in the SEC with 11 homers, the most by a Mizzou player since 2012. He drove in eight runs last week and scored seven more.
Harris on Fire Last Nine Games
- Not only did Harris have a tremendous five games last week, he has been on an absolute tear over the last nine games. He is hitting a team-best .353 with eight homers and 12 runs, 14 RBI and six walks in that span. He is reaching base at a .463 clip with a 1.059 slugging percentage, good for a 1.522 OPS as well. He leads the team in batting, runs, hits, homers, RBI, walks, slugging and OBP in that span.
- Another key reason for Harris' improvement this season has been his approach at the plate - take balls and mash strikes. That shows with his increased walk production. Harris had just 27 career walks entering the season and he has already set a career-high with 29 this season, a mark that ranks third in the SEC.
- Harris was having a good season through the first 28 games, but the last nine have put his stats among the best hitters in the SEC. Below is a look:
-
Stat First 28 (per game) Last Nine (per game) Total % Increase/game SEC Rank Batting .276 .353 .298 27% NR Homers/game 3 (0.11) 8 (0.89) 11 709% 3rd RBI/game 26 (0.93) 14 (1.56) 40 67% 4th Runs 18 (0.64) 12 (1.33) 30 107% 14th Total Bases 37 (1.3) 36 (4.00) 73 207% 13tth
Bond Mashes, Too
- As good as Trey Harris was last week, junior C Brett Bond was equally as impressive and one could argue that his numbers were actually better than Harris'. Bond hit .462 last week (6-for-13) and pounded four homers and a double while driving in six runs and scoring five more. He hit all four of his homers during the three-game Kentucky series, homering in all three games including two on Saturday. He actually slugged 300 points higher than Harris on the week with a 1.462 clip while boasting a 1.924 OPS. Bond drove in a run Tuesday vs. Missouri State with a sacrifice fly.
Brumfield Sets The Tone
- Sophomore CF Connor Brumfield has been a tone-setter at the top of the lineup for Steve Bieser and the rest of Mizzou's coaching staff. He has reached base safely in 23 consecutive contests entering the Ole Miss series, the longest streak by a Tiger this season. During those 23 games, Brumfield is hitting .330 with 17 runs, 16 RBI and 18 walks while reaching base at a .440 clip, second-best on the team
- What makes his 23-game stretch remarkable is that he is reaching base at a .500 clip when leading off an inning (17-for-34). Not only is he keying big innings by reaching base and scoring, he is also doing a tremendous job extending innings when hitting with two outs during his 23-game streak. In fact, he is hitting .313 with two outs during those 23 games and leads the team with 11 two-out RBI in that span.
Houck Moves Up Career Charts
- Mizzou junior ace RHP Tanner Houck now has 257 career strikeouts after striking out seven Kentucky batters last Friday. That ranks him tied for fifth in Mizzou program history with Chris Robertson who had 257 from 1991-94. Only Aaron Crow (277) and Kyle Gibson (304) have tallied more strikeouts in their first three seasons than Houck. Both Crow and Gibson were first-round picks and have both pitched in the big leagues.
- Houck has at least five starts left in the regular season. In his career, he is averaging 6.6 strikeouts per start, which puts him on pace to have 290 career strikeouts, which would rank fourth in program history.
- Another stat to watch for Houck is innings pitched. He has tossed 264.1 innings in his career, just outside the all-time top-10 at Mizzou. He is on pace for 298 innings of work through the conclusion of the regular season, which would rank him eighth all-time at Mizzou and second among three-year players.
- In his career, Houck is averaging 6.2 innings per start and has made it through 6.0 innings in 33 of his 39 career starts. He has 20 starts of 7.0+ innings and 10 of 8.0+ innings as he has been one of the most consistent hurlers in all of college baseball for the last three seasons. Of his 39 career starts, 29 have been 'quality starts' which is labeled as 6.0 innings with three or fewer earned runs.
For all the latest on Mizzou Baseball, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter (@MizzouBaseball) and like the team on Facebook and Instagram (Mizzou Baseball and missouri_baseball, respectively).
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