Baseball Looks to Extend Nonconference Streak Against Missouri State

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri baseball returns to Columbia to open a four-game home stretch Tuesday (April 18) with a 6 p.m., nonconference contest against in-state rival Missouri State at Taylor Stadium.

Tuesday’s game concludes the 2023 season series between the Tigers and Bears, with Missouri taking the first round in Springfield by a 10-1 score last Tuesday (April 11). Mizzou has won six consecutive nonconference matchups dating back to March 12.

The Tigers (22-13) also claimed a 13-5 victory in the final game of their Southeastern Conference series with Texas A&M this past Saturday in College Station, notching their seventh victory over an RPI Quadrant I team this season.

Missouri State (19-15) completed a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series sweep of UIC this past weekend, racking up 33 total runs in a Saturday doubleheader with the Flames in Chicago.

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, Tuesday’s game will be streamed live on SEC Network+.

PITCHING PROBABLES

RHP Logan Lunceford (Mizzou) vs. RHP Forrest Barnes (Missouri State)

PROMOTIONS

Missouri Pride-St. Louis – Raffle for St. Louis Cardinals tickets
Taco Tuesday – Half-priced walking tacos

SERIES HISTORY

Missouri officially trails Missouri State in the two clubs’ all-time series by a 31-30 margin.
Including a 2016 Mizzou win which was later vacated due to NCAA sanctions, the Tigers and Bears have evenly split their 62 meetings in a series that dates back to 1975.
The Tigers claimed the first meeting of the two teams last Tuesday (April 11) in Springfield, scoring nine times over the final four innings to post a 10-1 victory.
Dalton Bargo homered and drove in a pair of runs, and Hank Zeisler became the first Tiger to record two triples in a game since 2011 last Tuesday vs. MSU.
Mizzou owns a 17-14 all-time home mark vs. MSU, including a 6-5 win at Taylor Stadium last spring.

MEET THE TIGERS

Missouri is off to a 22-13 overall start this season.
The Tigers received votes in at least one major poll for seven straight weeks (Feb. 27-April 10), peaking as high as No. 15 in Collegiate Baseball’s March 20 poll.
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.
Hank Zeisler has been the Tigers’ most consistent power threat and run producer, totaling 10 home runs and 38 RBIs to date.
Luke Mann is hitting a club-best .341 to go along with 12 homers, two of which came Saturday in a 13-5 win at Texas A&M.
Zach Franklin leads the club with five victories and two saves in 12 total appearances.
As a team, the Tigers are batting .269 through the first 35 games of the season.
The Mizzou pitching staff has logged double-digit strikeout totals in 18 of its 35 games and ranks 18th nationally in K’s/9.0 IP (10.5).

MEET THE BEARS

Under the direction of 41st-year head Keith Guttin, the Bears enter the week 19-15 on the season.
The Bears completed a three-game Missouri Valley Conference series sweep of UIC on Saturday, running their conference mark to 8-4 this spring.
MSU is hitting .274 as a squad with 56 home runs, the latter of which ranks 37th among all Division I clubs.
Sophomore outfielder Spencer Nivens paces the MSU attack, bringing a .374 batting mark, 10 homers and Valley-leading .712 slugging percentage into the week.
Freshman outfielder Zack Stewart has enjoyed success in his rookie campaign as well, logging a club-best 37 RBIs and an MVC-leading 14 doubles to date.
On the mound, junior right-hander Brandt Thompson (4-3, 2.93 ERA) leads the MVC in strikeouts, pacing a staff that has registered 334 K’s in 305.1 innings.

NON-CON DOMINATION

Mizzou’s 17-3 mark against non-SEC foes continues a string of recent dominance in nonconference play.
The Tigers went 18-3 in nonconference play last spring, giving them an overall mark of 35-6 in non-SEC competition since the start of the 2022 season.
The SEC continues to dominate the top spot in the conference RPI ratings, bringing a Division I best 0.6033 rating into the week; the league’s 245 nonconference victories and 0.8305 win percentage are tops among all conferences as well.
Mizzou is hitting .302 against non-league foes and averaging nearly 10 hits per contest, while also posting a 3.78 team ERA.
Individually, Luke Mann is hitting .367 with six homers and 17 RBIs during nonconference play.
During Steve Bieser’s tenure as head coach, the Tigers have posted a cumulative 116-39 record in nonconference play, good for a .748 win percentage.

SUPER-MANN TAKES FLIGHT

Luke Mann continued his climb up the Mizzou home run chart (see above), hitting the 39th and 40th homers of his career in Saturday’s win at Texas A&M to gain sole possession of the No. 5 spot on the list.
Mann became the second Tiger in 10 days to hit three home runs in a game March 24 at No. 4 South Carolina as part of a career-best four-hit performance.
Mann needs two more long balls to match the career totals of Aaron Senne and Ryan Fry, currently tied in the No. 3 position with 42 round-trippers.
The St. Louis native logged a career-best 12-game hit streak (Feb. 24-March 15).
The fifth-year third baseman hit .400 (18-for-45) with four homers and 11 RBIs during his hit streak.
Mann was tabbed for first-team preseason laurels, becoming the first Tiger honoree since Kameron Misner’s second-team selection five years ago.
Mann’s 17 home runs in 2022 were the most by a Tiger since Ehlers hit 18 round-trippers in 2004.

MIZZOU BY THE NUMBERS

Missouri has seven wins over RPI Quadrant I clubs to its credit, including five vs. teams rated among the top 25.
Mizzou is 12-3 at home this season thanks in part to a pitching staff that has limited the opposition to a .192 batting average and 3.5 runs per game.
Since claiming five of their first six meetings with ranked foes, the Tigers have dropped 10 of their last 12 contests against nationally-ranked teams.
As a team, Mizzou ranks fourth in the SEC in triples (10).
The Tigers pitching staff ranks 11th nationally—and fifth in the SEC—in hits allowed per nine innings (7.48).
Mizzou has out-hit the competition in 25 of its 35 games, going 21-4 in those contests.
Tre Morris has been the Tigers’ top two-out hitter this season, logging eight hits in 23 at-bats (.348).
Morris brings a career-best five-game hit streak into Tuesday’s game; the Columbia, Mo., native has hit .357 (5-for-14) with a home run and three RBIs over the course of his streak (since April 1).
Hank Zeisler has produced 18 of his team-leading 38 RBIs with two out and has drawn a team-best 30 walks to rank ninth in the SEC.
Trevor Austin has driven in runs in 12 of his 13 chances with runners on third base and less than two out.
Led by Ty Wilmsmeyer’s 14 steals—which rank sixth in the SEC—Mizzou ranks fifth in the SEC in steals (44).
Dalton Bargo is hitting a team-best .381 at home, with two home runs and 10 RBIs at Taylor Stadium.
Dylan Leach has gunned down five would-be basestealers to rank second among all SEC catchers.
Chandler Murphy has gone 3-1 with a 2.13 ERA in his four home starts.
Rorik Maltrud ranks 25th nationally in strikeouts/9.0 IP (13.03) and fifth among all SEC pitchers in strikeouts (32) during conference play.

PRIMETIME TY

Ty Wilmsmeyer has enjoyed a strong start to his senior season, bringing a .319 batting average and 14 stolen bases into the week.
Wilmsmeyer has been at his best when the lights have been brightest, hitting .333 vs. ranked opponents.
The Tigers centerfielder has logged six multi-hit performances in SEC play, homering in back-to-back games vs. No. 4 Vanderbilt (April 6-7) and going 2-for-3 in each game for a combined four runs and five RBIs.
Wilmsmeyer logged a career-best four hits in a Feb. 19 win over No. 16 TCU, as well as a pair of two-hit performances against No. 9 South Carolina (March 25).
He also worked the final 5.0-plus innings of the series finale vs. South Carolina to bolster a depleted Mizzou pitching staff and keep the Tigers even with the Gamecocks in the 12-inning contest.
Wilmsmeyer struck out a career-best four batters and held one of the nation’s top offenses scoreless over his first five innings of work.

THROWING SMOKE

Mizzou’s pitching staff is off to a blazing hot start, with 18 double-digit strikeout totals in its first 35 games.
With 341 K’s, the Tigers could threaten the program’s single-season record for strikeouts (559 in 2019).
The Tigers rank 18th nationally as a staff in strikeouts per nine innings (10.5).
Mizzou’s team WHIP of 1.36 ranks 40th among all Division I pitching staffs, while the Tigers’ 7.48 hits allowed per game ranks 11th in the nation.
As a staff, the Tigers have limited the opposition to a collective .223 batting average, with seven different pitchers logging averages against below that figure.
Individually, Zach Franklin’s five wins are tied for 50th among all Division I pitchers.
Rorik Maltrud has been dominant as well, ranking among the conference’s leaders in opposing batting, strikeouts and hits allowed during SEC play.

TALK OF THE TOWN

Missouri’s strong start to the 2023 season has brought with it plenty of attention, as the Tigers received votes in at least one national poll for seven straight weeks (Feb. 27-April 10)
Mizzou checked in at No. 25 in this week’s RPI ratings.
The Tigers spent two weeks ranked among the top 25 clubs in the nation, peaking at No. 15 in Collegiate Baseball’s March 20 poll.
Mizzou has opened the home portion of its schedule by winning 12 of its first 15 games at Taylor Stadium, drawing nine different crowds of 1,000 or more and a total of 17,632 fans over 12 home dates, good for an average of 1,469 spectators per date.
That marks a 71.8-percent increase in year-to-date home attendance compared to the first 12 home dates of the 2022 season, when Mizzou drew an average of 855 fans per game.

BIESER BELIEVER

Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser is in his seventh year guiding the Tigers, entering the week with a 180-144-1 record as MU’s bench boss.
Bieser topped the 300-victory mark with Mizzou’s 10-4 win at FIU on Feb. 25, and enters Tuesday’s game with a career 318-241-1 mark in 11 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
The Tigers have finished with an overall record above .500 in five of Bieser’s six seasons.
Bieser’s 104 wins from 2017-19 were the most ever by a Mizzou baseball coach in his first three campaigns.
Additionally, Bieser’s win total marked the winningest three-year stretch by the Tigers since 2008-10 (103 victories).
Mizzou produced 39 wins in Southeastern Conference play from 2017-19 as well, marking its top three-year stretch in league play since joining its new conference in 2013.

TIGERS ON THE TUBE

Missouri is slated to appear in at least nine linear broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks over the course of the 2022 season.
The Tigers will play in eight matchups televised on the SEC Network, along with an ESPNU broadcast at Texas A&M on April 13.
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+, including each of this weekend’s contests.

FOLLOW THE TIGERS

Single-game tickets for all Mizzou baseball home games in 2023 are on sale now and can be purchased by calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS, or by visiting MUTigers.com/feature/BSBTix.

For all the latest information on Mizzou baseball, please visit MUTigers.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Tigers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

This article is provided by University of Missouri Athletics