Baseball Opens Three-Game Set With NJIT Friday

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri baseball continues its longest home stand of the season with a three-game series against the NJIT Highlanders this weekend, beginning with a 3 p.m. contest Friday (March 10) at Taylor Stadium.

Mizzou stretched its longest win streak in five years to eight games with a 6-0 blanking of Western Illinois on Tuesday (March 7), following a three-game sweep of Texas Southern last weekend.

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, the game will be streamed live on SEC Network+.

PITCHING PROBABLES

Friday – RHP Chandler Murphy (Mizzou) vs. RHP Ryan Fischer (NJIT)
Saturday – LHP Ian Lohse (Mizzou) vs. LHP Aidan Kidd (NJIT)
Sunday – TBD (Mizzou) vs. RHP Joe Georgini (NJIT)

PROMOTIONS

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

SERIES HISTORY

• Friday’s series opener will mark the first meeting between Mizzou and NJIT.
• Mizzou brings an all-time mark of 4-1 vs. the membership of the America East Conference into this weekend’s series, including a streak of three consecutive victories.
• The Tigers’ most recent matchup against an America East foe came in March 2018, when they swept a three-game series with UMBC at Taylor Stadium.

MEET THE TIGERS

• Missouri is off to a 10-2 start to the season after running its win streak to eight in a row with its 6-0 victory over Western Illinois on Tuesday.
• The Tigers are receiving votes in both the USA Today Sports Baseball Top 25 Coaches Poll and NCBWA Division I Poll this week.
• 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 saw his 11-game hit streak come to an end Saturday, but still brings a .386 batting mark and team-leading eight steals into the series.
• Luke Mann is hitting at a .383 clip and has homered five times and scored a club-high 16 runs through the first 12 games.
• Hank Zeisler homered in four-straight games (Feb. 23-26) and leads the club with 17 RBIs.
• Chandler Murphy logged 6.0 shutout innings in an 8-0 blanking of Texas Southern last Saturday, giving the right-hander his first victory as a Tiger.
• As a team, the Tigers are batting .312 and have out-homered the opposition by a 19-4 count through the first 12 games of the season.
• The Mizzou pitching staff has logged double-digit strikeout totals in nine of its 12 games.

MEET THE HIGHLANDERS

• Under the direction of fifth-year head coach Robbie McClellan, NJIT brings a 4-6 season mark into the series after being swept in a three-game set at No. 20 NC State last weekend.
• The Highlanders are hitting .268 as a club, led by senior outfielder Albert Choi’s .386 average, 17 hits, five steals and 10 RBIs on the season.
• Senior catcher Luke Longo has been the team’s top power bat, clubbing five home runs in just seven games.
• On the mound, NJIT has produced a 6.35 ERA as a staff, with right-hander Joe Georgini leading the pack with his 2-0 mark and 3.94 ERA.
• Lefty Aidan Kidd has won two of his three decisions thus far and leads the Highlanders with 20 strikeouts in 12.2 innings pitched.

GOING STREAKING

• Mizzou extended its win streak to eight games with its 6-0 blanking of Western Illinois on Tuesday.
• The Tigers’ win streak represents their longest since the 2018 season, when they won nine games in a row (Feb. 27-March 13).
• As a club, Mizzou is hitting .319 over the last eight games, outscoring the opposition by a 78-27 margin.
• Led by four home runs apiece from Luke Mann and Hank Zeisler, nine different Tigers have combined to hit 15 bombs over the course of the streak.
• Justin Colon has been the Tigers’ top regular at the plate, hitting .500 (10-for-20) with 10 runs scored and four steals, while Zeisler has driven in 14 runs during the same span.
• On the base paths, Mizzou is 18-of-21 in steal attempts.
• A total of 15 Tiger hurlers have combined to allow just 23 earned runs, while striking out 85 hitters in 66.0 IP.
• A pair of freshmen have contributed in big ways during the streak, with Dalton Bargo hitting .455 (10-for-22) with eight RBIs and Jackson Lovich batting .500 (5-for-10) with a home run and seven RBIs.

CAN’T STOP COLON

• Justin Colon has given Mizzou opponents fits from the bottom spot in the Tigers batting order, hitting .382 with a .994 OPS to date.
• The Mizzou shortstop has registered at least one hit in seven of eight games over the course of the Tigers’ current win streak, hitting .500 (10-for-20) with 10 runs scored.
• He posted a career-best three-hit performance in Sunday’s win over Texas Southern, then homered for the first time in 2023 Tuesday vs. WIU.
• The sophomore from Puerto Rico has stolen four bases in five attempts on the season.

MANN-ING UP

• Luke Mann continued his climb up the Mizzou home run chart (see above), hitting his 32nd and 33rd career round-trippers last weekend to move into sole possession of the No. 9 spot on the list.
• Mann needs two more long balls to catch Ryan Stegall and Dave Silvestri in the No. 7 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 Feb. 23 at FIU, but has followed up that effort by logging hits in each of the Tigers’ last eight 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.
• His 15 home runs in SEC games ranked second among all league batters.

THROWING SMOKE

• Mizzou’s pitching staff is off to a blazing hot start, with nine double-digit strikeout totals in its first 12 games.
• With 133 K’s to date, the Tigers are on pace to shatter the program’s single-season record for strikeouts (559 in 2019).
• The Tigers rank 14th nationally as a staff in strikeouts per nine innings (11.9).
• Mizzou’s team WHIP of 1.20 ranks 21st among all Division I pitching staffs, while the Tigers’ two shutouts on the season rank ninth nationally.
• As a staff, the Tigers have limited the opposition to a collective .202 batting average, with nine different pitchers logging averages against of .200 or less.
• Tony Neubeck leads the club with 20 punchouts in 12.2 innings, good for an average of 14.21 per nine innings.

POWER DISPLAY

• Mizzou’s offense has picked up right where it left off last spring, outhomering the opposition by an 19-4 count through its first 12 games.
• Nine different Tigers have gone deep to date, including Luke Mann and Hank Zeisler, who share the team lead and rank 49th nationally with five homers apiece.
• 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.

BIESER BELIEVER

• Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser is in his seventh year guiding the Tigers, entering the weekend with a 168-133-1 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 306-230-1 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.

WHAT A RELIEF

• Mizzou’s bullpen has been a driving force in the club’s strong start to the season, registering a 3.11 ERA, while holding the opposition to a minuscule .183 batting average against.
• The Tiger relief corps has registered seven of the clubs’ 10 victories and totaled 86 strikeouts in 55.0 combined innings, allowing just 19 earned runs on 36 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 College Baseball Showdown 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 has made four appearances out of the MU pen, registering two wins and a save while fanning 19 over his 8.2 innings.

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