Baseball Primed for Midweek Test Against Lamar

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Missouri continues its season-opening 12-game home stand Wednesday (March 15) with a 3 p.m. nonconference matchup against the Lamar Cardinals at Taylor Stadium.

Mizzou secured a series win against NJIT with a 5-3 victory on Sunday, hiking its overall mark to 12-3 this season. The Tigers improved to 7-1 at home and 389-226 all-time at Taylor Stadium with their 2-1 series victory over NJIT.

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+, with Randy Moehlman and Andrew Kauffman describing the action.

PITCHING PROBABLES

LHP Ian Lohse (Mizzou) vs. LHP Hunter Hesseltine (Lamar)

SERIES HISTORY

• Wednesday’s contest will mark the seventh all-time meeting of Mizzou and Lamar, with the Tigers holding a 5-1 edge.
• The two clubs last met in March 1990, with the Cardinals claiming a 7-2 win to close out a three-game series in Beaumont.
• This will be the first meeting in the series in Columbia, with Mizzou winning five of its six previous matchups against the Cardinals in Beaumont.
• Mizzou brings a 16-15 record against the current membership of the Southland Conference into Wednesday’s contest.

MEET THE TIGERS

• Missouri is off to a 12-3 start to the season after taking two of three games from NJIT over the weekend.
• The Tigers are receiving votes in a major poll (NCBWA) for the third straight 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.
• Trevor Austin was the Tigers’ top hitter last week, batting .500 (6-for-12) in four games; he brings a .373 overall average and 14 RBIs into Wednesday’s game.
• Luke Mann is hitting at a .379 clip, which is tops among all Tiger regulars; the preseason All-SEC pick has homered five times and scored a club-best 18 runs through the first 15 games.
• Hank Zeisler homered in four-straight games (Feb. 23-26) and leads the club with 18 RBIs.
• Chandler Murphy turned in a string of 16.1 consecutive scoreless innings, Feb. 23-March 10.
• Zach Franklin leads the club with three victories and 29 strikeouts in six appearances.
• As a team, the Tigers are batting .305 and have outhomered the opposition by a 20-7 count through the first 15 games of the season.
• The Mizzou pitching staff has logged double-digit strikeout totals in 10 of its 15 games.

MEET THE CARDINALS

• Under the direction of head coach Will Davis, Lamar enters Wednesday’s game with a 13-3 season mark.
• Lamar has posted wins over the likes of Texas A&M and Kansas State, most recently completing a three-game home sweep of UC Riverside this past weekend.
• Ryan Snell leads the Cardinals at the plate, bringing an .825 season slugging percentage into the week; the senior catcher has racked up 15 extra-base hits, including seven home runs to date.
• On the mound, Lamar has posted a 2.77 team ERA, which ranks 13th among all NCAA Division I pitching staffs.
• Jacob Ellis leads the staff with a 2-0 mark to go along with a 9.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 2.05 ERA.
• LU’s bullpen has been formidable, with Daniel Cole, Jackson Cleveland and Kole Tauzin have each logged sub-2.00 ERA’s while going a combined 5-1 with five saves over 22 total appearances.

TO BE FRANK

• Mizzou graduate transfer Zach Franklin has made an immediate impact in his first season with Mizzou, going 3-0 with a team-best 29 strikeouts in just 12.1 IP.
• Franklin is the SEC’s active leader in career wins (19) and strikeouts (243), ranking third among all active NCAA Division I pitchers in those two categories as well.
• The Marion, N.C., native has also recorded 12 saves in his career, which is tied for third on the active SEC list.
• Franklin has also recorded the top velocity by a Tiger pitcher this season, topping out at 98.26 MPH vs. TCU on Feb. 19.
• In his six 2023 outings to date, Franklin has registered at least six punchouts in three of those, none of which have extended beyond 3.0 innings.
• Franklin has limited left-handed hitters to .118 (2-for-17) hitting, while averaging a whopping 21.16 K’s per nine innings so far in 2023.

MANN-ING UP

• Luke Mann continued his climb up the Mizzou home run chart, hitting his 32nd and 33rd career round-trippers against Texas Southern (March 4-5) 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 also brings a career-best 11-game hit streak into Wednesday’s contest (Feb. 24-March 12).
• The fifth-year third baseman has hit .415 (17-for-41) with four homers and nine RBIs over the course of his current 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 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 10 double-digit strikeout totals in its first 15 games.
• With 165 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 eighth nationally as a staff in strikeouts per nine innings (12.0).
• Mizzou’s team WHIP of 1.11 ranks 12th among all Division I pitching staffs, while the Tigers’ two shutouts on the season rank 17th nationally.
• As a staff, the Tigers have limited the opposition to a collective .194 batting average, with nine different pitchers logging averages against of .200 or less.
• Individually, Tony Neubeck ranks 27th nationally in both hits allowed per nine innings (4.02) and WHIP (0.77), while Zach Franklin’s three wins are tied for 18th among all Division I pitchers.

NON-CON DOMINATION

• Mizzou’s 12-3 start leading into the first weekend of SEC play has continued a string of recent dominance during the nonconference season.
• The Tigers went 18-3 in nonconference play last spring, giving them an overall mark of 30-6 in non-SEC competition since the start of the 2022 season.
• Mizzou hit .310 against non-league foes and averaged more than nine runs per game, while also posting a 3.76 team ERA in those contests.
• During Steve Bieser’s tenure as head coach, the Tigers have posted a cumulative 111-39 record in nonconference play, good for a .740 win percentage.

CAN’T STOP COLON

• Justin Colon has given Mizzou opponents fits from the bottom spot in the Tigers batting order, hitting .341 with a .911 OPS to date.
• The Mizzou shortstop registered at least one hit in eight of nine games over the course of the Tigers’ recent win streak, hitting .500 (11-for-22) with 11 runs scored.
• He posted a career-best three-hit performance in Mizzou’s win over Texas Southern on March 5, then homered for the first time in 2023 March 7 vs. Western Illinois.
• The sophomore from Puerto Rico has stolen four bases in five attempts on the season.

BIESER BELIEVER

• Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser is in his seventh year guiding the Tigers, entering the week with a 170-134-1 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 Wednesday’s game with a career 308-231-1 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.

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