Baseball Christens 2024 Season With Four-Game Set at Cal Poly

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Missouri will lift the lid on its 131st season of varsity baseball Friday (Feb. 16) when the Tigers open a four-game series with Cal Poly at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Despite anticipated soggy conditions on the West Coast that have already impacted the series schedule, the Tigers and Mustangs are slated to square off four times, with a day-night doubleheader Friday (4 and 8 p.m. CST), followed by a 5 p.m. (CST) Saturday (Feb. 17) contest and another single game Sunday (Feb. 18) at 3 p.m. (CST).

All four games in San Luis Obispo this weekend will be streamed live on ESPN+. Additionally, all Mizzou Baseball games in 2024 will be carried by the Tiger Radio Network, with live streamed broadcasts available through the Varsity Network App (by searching ‘Mizzou’).

PITCHING PROBABLES

• Friday, Feb. 16 (4 p.m. CST) – RHP Bryce Mayer (Mizzou) vs. LHP Jakob Wright (Cal Poly)
• Friday, Feb. 16 (8 p.m. CST) – RHP Carter Rustad (Mizzou) vs. RHP Steven Brooks (Cal Poly)
• Saturday, Feb. 17 (5 p.m. CST) – RHP Logan Lunceford (Mizzou) vs. RHP Ryan Baum (Cal Poly)
• Saturday, Feb. 17 (3 p.m. CST) – TBD (Mizzou) vs. LHP Christopher Downs (Cal Poly)

SERIES HISTORY

• Mizzou and Cal Poly will meet for the fourth time when the two clubs open the 2024 season Friday afternoon.
• MU holds a 2-1 overall series edge after claiming each of the last two meetings with the Mustangs.
• Mizzou edged Cal Poly, 10-9, in the most recent matchup in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2011.
• The Tigers also claimed a 6-3 victory on March 2, 2008 in San Diego, after Cal Poly notched a 4-2 win on Feb. 15, 2003 in Phoenix.

SCOUTING MISSOURI

• Missouri posted a 30-24 finish last spring, including a 10-20 SEC mark.
• Kerrick Jackson was named the 15th head coach in Mizzou history in June, returning to Columbia to lead a program for which he served as an assistant coach from 2011-15 under Mizzou Hall of Fame head coach (and current pitching coach) Tim Jamieson.
• The Tigers return three regular starters from last season, led by senior INF/OF Trevor Austin, who batted .311 with eight homers and 10 steals to help bolster the MU offense.
• Senior INF Matt Garcia turned in a solid debut season with the Tigers, providing clutch hitting and lock-down defense on the MU infield.
• Additionally, junior INF Justin Colon returns for Mizzou and earning significant playing time at shortstop over each of his first two seasons in Columbia.
• MU should also receive a lift from sophomore INF Jackson Lovich and junior OF Juju Stevens, who each made key contributions in limited duty in 2023.
• Several newcomers could also make early contributions, including junior INF Danny Corona, who helped Wake Forest to a 2023 College World Series berth, C Jedier Hernandez, a standout behind the plate for Seton Hall the last two seasons, and sophomore OF Jeric Curtis, a Texas Tech transfer who brings significant speed to the Tiger outfield and batting order.
• On the mound, sophomore RHP Logan Lunceford is back to help anchor Mizzou’s weekend rotation after posting 68 strikeouts to lead all SEC freshman hurlers last spring.
• Junior LHP Javyn Pimental also contributed mightily to the Tigers’ mound efforts in 2023, making eight starts for the Tigers.
• Mizzou should also benefit from the potential return of a trio veterans who missed significant time last spring; left-handers Ian Lohse and Tony Neubeck and RHP Carter Rustad missed significant portions of 2023 due to injury following promising starts to the campaign.
• New arms like RHP Xavier Lovett and RHP Bryce Mayer could compete for starting rotation spots, while RHP Jacob Peaden may give the back end of the Tigers’ bullpen a strong presence.

MIZZOU BY THE NUMBERS

• Missouri is coming off a 30-win campaign last spring, which marked the 20th time the Tigers reached the 30-win plateau in the last 30 seasons, as well as the 35th time overall in program history.
• Mizzou finished its 2023 home slate with a 19-7 mark at Taylor Stadium — its top home win total since 2019.
• The Tigers also shattered the program’s single-season attendance record, drawing at total of 37,133 fans over 23 home dates to eclipse the previous mark of 31,450 spectators (2008).
• Mizzou homered 79 times as a team in 2023, which represented the fifth-best season total in program history
• The Tigers’ 2023 pitching staff ranked 37th nationally in strikeouts per nine innings (9.7).
• Trevor Austin enters his fourth season as a Tiger with a career .294 batting mark. The Jefferson City, Mo., product has hit .282 in SEC play with 10 of his 16 career home runs coming in league action.
• Matt Garcia enters the campaign as the Tigers’ active career leader in hits (121), runs (70), doubles (21) and triples (6).
• Ian Lohse has limited opposing hitters to a minuscule .178 batting mark in his 32 career outings spanning 58.0 innings.
• Carter Rustad brings 12 career victories into the 2023 season. The Kansas City native also leads all active Mizzou pitchers with 113 career strikeouts.

SCOUTING CAL POLY

• Under the direction of 22nd year head coach Larry Lee, Cal Poly is looking to bounce back from an uncharacteristic 21-35 season last spring.
• The Mustangs return were picked to finish seventh in the Big West Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
• C Ryan Stafford returns to lead Cal Poly after hitting .313 with a team-leading 20 doubles, seven home runs and 44 RBIs in 2023.
• Stafford, who earned a roster spot on USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team last summer, also threw out 11 would-be base stealers for the second straight year and picked off three other runners.
• INF Aaron Casillas is also back for the Mustangs following a year in which he hit .329 with 40 RBIs, while fellow returner and INF Ryan Fenn led all Cal Poly hitters with his .344 average.
• In the outfield, Jake Steels swiped a team-high 13 bases in 2023 to go along with a .318 showing.
• On the mound, the right-handed duo of Ryan Baum and Steven Brooks returns after sharing the team lead with four wins apiece last spring.
• As a team, Cal Poly hit .278, while fielding at a .974 clip a year ago.

TIGER TRAILBLAZER

• New Mizzou head coach Kerrick Jackson will make his debut in the Tiger dugout this weekend. Jackson has already enjoyed a personal moment of ‘NOW’ as the St. Louis product became the first Black head coach in SEC history with his appointment to MU’s top baseball job.
• Jackson also picked up a significant honor from Baseball America in December, earning the publication’s 2023 Trailblazer of the Year honor.
• Jackson has left his mark in just four seasons as a Division I head coach, including leading Southern to the 2019 Southwestern Athletic Conference crown and an NCAA Regional berth, as well as guiding Memphis to its first winning season in six years last spring.
• Additionally, Jackson has impacted the college baseball landscape through his work on the American Baseball Coaches Association’s Diversity in Baseball Committee, a body for which he has served as chairman since its creation in 2018. The council works to improve diversity in the coaching ranks through a professional development program and an increased focus on youth baseball.

NONCONFERENCE DOMINATION

• Mizzou logged a 20-3 mark against non-SEC foes last spring, continuing a string of recent dominance in nonconference play.
• The Tigers went 18-3 in nonconference play in 2022, giving them an overall mark of 38-6 in non-SEC competition since the start of the 2022 season.
• Mizzou hit .300 against non-league foes and averaged nearly 10 hits per outing, while also posting a 3.95 team ERA.
• Over the last decade, the Tigers’ dominance has been equally as pronounced, with MU winning nearly 100 more nonconference games than it has lost (165-66), good for a .747 winning percentage.

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

• Mizzou will be making its first season-opening trip to California since 2011, when it topped Cal Poly (10-9) on a neutral field in Los Angeles (Feb. 18).
• Most recently, the Tigers traveled to San Francisco for a three-game nonconference set against the Dons in February 2012.
• The Tigers dropped all three of those contests to USF, as well as the final two games of their 2011 trip to Los Angeles, meaning they enter Friday’s season opener looking to right a five-game slide in the Golden State.
• Overall, MU brings a 22-32 overall record against schools from California into the 2024 season.
• The Tigers did log arguably the biggest four wins of the 2000s in California when Mizzou posted victories over UC Irvine, UCLA and Pepperdine (twice) to claim the 2006 Malibu Regional title, advancing to their first NCAA Super Regional appearance.

COMING HOME

• Head coach Kerrick Jackson did not have to look far when adding the initial pieces of his Mizzou coaching staff. He selected former Tiger head coach Tim Jamieson for his pitching coach, completing a homecoming for the Mizzou Athletics Hall of Famer.
• Jamieson brings 28 years of coaching experience on the Missouri campus into his new role as the Tigers pitching coach.
• In 22 seasons as Mizzou’s head baseball coach, Jamieson led the Tigers to 698 wins, trailing only Gene McArtor (733) on the Tigers’ all-time coaching victories chart.
• Another new Mizzou assistant coach (and former Tiger) will be making a return to his old stomping grounds as well, both over the next two weekends and for the foreseeable future. Bryson LeBlanc joined Jamieson on Jackson’s first MU staff after spending five seasons on the coaching staff at UC San Diego, whom Mizzou will face two times at next weekend’s Tony Gwynn Legacy in San Diego.
• LeBlanc, who was named one of D1Baseball.com’s picks for its ‘100 Assistant Coaches Athletic Directors Should Know’ list this past fall, patrolled the MU outfield for Jamieson on the Tigers’ 2006 NCAA Regional-winning club.

TIGERS ON THE TUBE

• Each of this weekend’s games against Cal Poly will be streamed live on ESPN+.
• Missouri has been slated to appear in eight linear broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks over the course of the 2024 season.
• The Tigers will play in eight matchups televised on the SEC Network, starting with MU’s March 24 league game vs. Kentucky in Columbia.
• Additionally, four regular-season dates have been designated as potential wild cards, allowing the league to select additional games for broadcast.
• Mizzou’s SEC matchups and select non-conference games will stream on SEC Network+.

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