Baseball Looks to Extend Hot Start Against Texas Southern

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The University of Missouri baseball team will open its first home series of the 2023 season this weekend at Taylor Stadium, hosting Texas Southern for a three-game set consisting of two seven-inning games on Saturday (March 4) and a 1 p.m. contest Sunday (March 5).

Mizzou opened its home slate with a 17-2 run-rule victory over Lindenwood on Tuesday (Feb. 28) and has won four in a row and six of its first eight games of the season. With the win, the Tigers posted their eighth straight victory in a home opener and their seventh in a row under head coach Steve Bieser.

Fans can once again catch Mizzou baseball on the airwaves all season long on KTGR and the Tiger Radio Network. Tex Little and Matt Michaels return to the booth for the call. Additionally, each of the three games in the series will be streamed live on SEC Network+.

PITCHING PROBABLES

Saturday (Game 1) – RHP Chandler Murphy vs. TBD
Saturday (Game 2) – LHP Tony Neubeck vs. TBD
Sunday – RHP Rorik Maltrud vs. TBD

PROMOTIONS

Boone Electric Cooperative Family Funday (Sunday) – Kids run the bases, postgame autographs and trading cards.

SERIES HISTORY

Saturday’s series opener will mark the first meeting between Mizzou and Texas Southern.
Mizzou has won nine straight meetings with Southwestern Athletic Conference opponents dating back to 2015, including all six of its previous matchups against SWAC foes during Bieser’s tenure.
Last year, the Tigers pitching staff tied a 59-year-old school record with 20 strikeouts against Southern in their lone meeting with a SWAC school.

MEET THE TIGERS

Mizzou’s 2023 roster features a heavy helping of talent from within the state of Missouri’s borders, with 16 players from the Show-Me State.
Additionally, Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser has brought in players from a total of 16 different states, plus the territory of Puerto Rico.
Ty Wilmsmeyer will bring an 11-game hit streak and a team-leading .500 batting mark into this weekend’s series.
Hank Zeisler homered in all four of the Tigers’ games at FIU last weekend and leads the club with 13 RBIs.
On the mound, Tony Neubeck has been dominant in his two outings thus far, striking out 15 and allowing just three hits in 8.2 scoreless innings.
As a team, the Tigers are batting .309 and have outhomered the opposition by an 11-1 count through the first eight games of the season.
The Mizzou pitching staff has logged double-digit strikeout totals in six of its eight games.

MEET THE (TSU) TIGERS

Texas State brings a 7-3 season mark into this weekend’s series.
The Tigers of head coach Michael Robertson saw their six-game win streak come to an end with an 8-5 loss at Houston on Tuesday.
TSU has gone 1-3 vs. NCAA Division I competition this season.
As a club, the Tigers are batting .331 to go along with a 3.21 staff ERA.
Jordan Vidato (.500) and Daalen Adderley (.469) lead the Tigers at the plate and on the basepaths, combining to steal eight bases in eight attempts.
CJ Castillo brings a club-best eight RBIs into the weekend, as well as a .394 batting average.
On the mound, Josh Fluet has allowed just one earned run in 10.1 innings, and Abraham Deleon has fanned a team-high 16 hitters in three appearances.

TY TOO HOT TO HANDLE

Ty Wilmsmeyer has enjoyed a torrid start to his senior season, bringing a .500 batting average and six stolen bases in six attempts into the series.
The Springfield, Mo., native extended his personal hit streak to 11 games with his 2-for-3, 3 RBI effort Tuesday vs. Lindenwood, matching a career-best 11-game streak from Feb. 22-March 15, 2022.
Wilmsmeyer ranks second in the SEC—and 28th among all Division I batters—with his average of 1.88 hits per game, while his six steals rate third in the league and 23rd nationally.
He also ranks sixth among SEC hitters in batting and hits (15).
Wilmsmeyer recorded seven hits over the Tigers’ three games at the College Baseball Showdown (Feb. 17-19).

MANN-ING UP

Luke Mann continued his climb up the Mizzou home run chart, hitting his 31st career round-tripper in Tuesday’s win over Lindenwood.
Mann needs one more long ball to catch Chris Wyrick in the No. 9 position on the chart.
The St. Louis native saw his personal hit streak of eight straight games (dating back to May 14, 2022) come to an end last Feb. 23 at FIU, but has followed up that effort by logging hits in each of the Tigers’ last four games.
Mann was tabbed for first-team preseason laurels, becoming the first Tiger honoree since Kameron Misner’s second-team selection five years ago.
The fifth-year third baseman from St. Louis belted 15 of his 17 home runs last season in SEC play.
Mann’s 17 blasts were the most by a Tiger since Cody Ehlers hit 18 round-trippers in 2004.

WHAT A RELIEF

Mizzou’s bullpen has been a driving force in the club’s strong start to the season, registering a 3.51 ERA, while holding the opposition to a miniscule .178 batting average against.
The Tiger relief corps has registered five of the clubs’ six victories and totaled 64 strikeouts in 41.0 combined innings, allowing just 16 earned runs on 26 hits.
The group turned in a performance to remember at the College Baseball Showdown (Feb. 17-19), registering 29 strikeouts over the first three games of the season.
The seven Tiger relievers who worked at the CBS went 2-0 with a 2.04 ERA, allowing just eight hits over a combined 17.2 innings.
Tony Neubeck established a personal career high with nine strikeouts in his 3 2/3 innings vs. Oklahoma State, then posted 5.0 more shutout innings to earn a win at FIU (Feb. 24).
Grad transfer Zach Franklin made two appearances out of the MU pen, fanning 10 while allowing just one hit over his 4.2 innings.

GETTING OFFENSIVE

The Tigers’ 17 runs Tuesday vs. Lindenwood not only marked a 2023 season high, but also their best offensive showing since a 19-run outburst vs. Mississippi State on April 30 of last year.
Mizzou put 29 runners on base via a hit (11), walk (13) or hit batsman (5) vs. LU, which also represented its top single-game total since putting 30 batters on base in that same contest vs. Mississippi State last spring.

HAMMERIN’ HANK HONORED

Graduate first baseman Hank Zeisler homered in each of Mizzou’s four games at FIU (Feb. 23-26), driving in nine runs to help the Tigers take three games in the series.
The UNLV transfer was honored by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper with one of its national player of the week honors on Monday.
Zeisler saw his streak of four consecutive games with a home run end Tuesday, but that string is believed to be the longest by a Tiger since 2001, when Ryan Stegall homered in four straight contests (April 28-May 5).
Between stops at NCAA Division III Chapman University, UNLV and Mizzou, Zeisler has hit 35 career home runs in 173 total games.

POWER DISPLAY

Mizzou’s offense has picked up right where it left off last spring, outhomering the opposition by an 11-1 count through its first eight games.
Five different Tigers have gone deep to date, including Hank Zeisler, who ranks 22nd nationally with four homers.
The 2022 Tigers set Mizzou’s BBCOR-era home run standard with 62 long balls for the season, which represented its top total since the 1998 squad blasted a school-record 110 bombs.
In records dating to 1950, only 10 Mizzou teams have hit 55 or more homers in a season, and last year’s club tied for the seventh-best total in program history.

THROWING SMOKE

Mizzou’s pitching staff is off to a blazing hot start, with six double-digit strikeout totals in its first eight games.
The Tigers rank 21st nationally as a staff in strikeouts per nine innings (11.7).
Tony Neubeck leads the club with 16 punchouts in 8.2 innings, good for an average of 15.58 per nine innings.

BORN TO RUN

Mizzou has employed the top running game in the SEC to gain an offensive edge through the first two weeks of the season, swiping 17 bases in 22 attempts.
Led by Ty Wilmsmeyer’s 6-of-6 performance in steal attempts, the Tigers lead the SEC and rank 21st nationally in stolen bags.
MU has logged four steals in two separate outings—at FIU on Feb. 24 and vs. Lindenwood on Feb. 28.

FOLLOW THE TIGERS

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This article is provided by University of Missouri Athletics