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Today we’re talking about how Mizzou Baseball might be figuring something out under Kerrick Jackson!
Early season baseball returns are always a little funky as teams sort themselves out in non-conference play, but Mizzou is putting together a dominant run against the early opponents on its schedule. After sweeping a double-header on Saturday, the Tigers ran their win streak to 8 games with a weekend sweep of North Dakota State. They’re now 10-2 on the season, getting the 10th in somewhat dramatic
fashion:
Trailing 5-4 in the eighth, a walk by Parker followed by a hit-by-pitch off the chest of Patterson gave Mizzou runners on first and second with nobody out. Macon came to the plate with his 10-game hit streak in risk of coming to an end, but stepped up and delivered an RBI single down the right field line on an 0-2 count, bringing pinch runner Donovan Jordan in to score from second, extending Macon’s hit streak to eleven games. In a tie game, Woita came to the plate and came through with a two-run single to left field that brought Patterson and Macon in to score, giving the Tigers a 7-5 lead with three outs to get.
While the Tigers haven’t exactly been facing the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals, they’re taking care of business this season, sweeping away teams that they might have only won 2 of 3 against last year. It’s an exciting start for a program that has yet to find its footing with Kerrick Jackson at the helm. They’ve still got 5 games to go, including a big 4-game series against UIC this weekend, before they enter SEC play, but the Tigers are looking at their best start to a season under KJ.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
What matters is what happens next. I think Missouri can make the tournament by simply going .500 the rest of the way. The important games for Missouri are probably the road game at Oklahoma, and the home games against Tennessee and Arkansas. I think you need to get one of those three, and win at Mississippi State, and you’re probably okay. Tennessee and Arkansas are top 30 so those are Q1 home games, and OU is 69th so that’s still a Q1 road game. MSU is sitting at 90th, so that’s a Q2 road game. That means with 4 regular season games to play, three are in Quad 1. The more wins you get in Quad 1 the better, obviously. If they want to win the all, they should. 22-9 and 12-6 in the SEC is certainly worthy of inclusion, and even a quality seed.
The performances have been better over the past few weeks. Now to turn those into results… and a bid.
Using [BartTorvik], I know that since the month of February began, there are only 13 teams who have played better basketball than Missouri. That encompasses the last 7 games, where the Tigers are 5-2.
BartTorvik.com’s GameScore metric for each game has the Tigers scoring no lower than 89 in every game save for the home game against Texas.
They’re playing well, in a good conference, and it’s put them in position to know they will be playing basketball in the NCAA Tournament. And, maybe just as important, they’re playing for a potential double bye in the SEC Tournament.
As someone who has been aggressively down on Mizzou most of the season, the last few games have been really encouraging. Dare I say, they’re fun to watch again!
Mizzou fans who aren’t planning to travel to any of the remaining meets will get to catch a final glimpse of Lauren Macpherson, Grace Anne Davis, Elise Tisler, Sara Wabi, Addison Lawrence*, Amy Wier, and Makayla Green* at the team’s former home, Hearnes Center. I, for one, am excited about the return to Hearnes, as it benefits the media greatly to be so close to the floor and you know it’s really all about
meus (I kid).
It was junior Hannah Horton, however, that did most of the hardest work, sharing titles on vault, bars, and floor. Quite a day!
“A game like this means a lot to me,” Dowell said. “For our team, we were able to stay so close. We’ve had a tough stretch … I think it was a good confidence building for our team.”
The loss ends the Tigers’ regular season at 16-15. They’ll enter this week’s SEC Tournament as the No. 14 seed.
- Over at Rock M+, Watkins is discussing the increasingly rosey NCAA Tournament picture for Mizzou, an initial look at potential portal options in the summer and general chat about the outlook for many hoops teams around the country.
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