The five-game slate in Missouri for Mizzou baseball kicked off on a winning note, in a slightly different stadium for one purpose. The Tigers’ annual Braggin’ Rights clash against Illinois.
The 5-1 victory on Tuesday evening over their rivals didn’t come via the high-powered offense that we’ve seen throughout the season from Mizzou. On a night where the bullpen, not the starting pitching staff, was utilized, the Tigers got what they wanted and very much needed in a midweek clash.
PJ Green, who has
been a right-handed bullpen arm this season for the Tigers, has had his struggles, with a 10.80 ERA in his five innings he’s pitched this season. In the opening inning against the Illini, he faced the same early struggles.
Two walks and a long single saw the bases loaded with nobody out. That drew an early mound visit from Mizzou manager Kerrick Jackson, not to pull the right-hander, but to give him a reminder, of which he gave the “PG version,” in the post-game press conference.
“I told him you have really, really good stuff,” Jackson said. When you look at what it is from a metric standpoint, the fastball’s above average, the slider’s above average, the split’s above average. And PJ just gets caught up too many times worrying about the what‑ifs.
I basically told him, Hey, pull yourself together. Be aggressive. You got yourself into a bases‑loaded situation. It is what it is. However you can manage it, manage it. But we need you to go and be aggressive right now. If you’re gonna get beat, get beat aggressively. Stop getting beat passively.”
Safe to say, Green got the message. Including a pop-up, strikeout and a groundout to end the first inning, Green retired six straight after the early jam, finishing with three scoreless innings and two strikeouts. This marked his longest outing of the season.
“What I said to him after his outing was, just think how good the outing would have been if you weren’t as bad as you were, like, if it was better,” Jackson said. “I used some more colorful words but for him, hopefully this is a stepping stone to get him in the right direction, because that’s a really good arm that we need.”
After Green got himself out of his jam, the Tigers bats brought their response, albeit condensed into the bottom of the first inning.
A walk and two singles loaded the bases for Cameron Benson, whose ground ball to first was misplayed, allowing two runs to score and another to advance. Freshman second baseman Blaize Ward followed with a two‑run double into the left‑center gap, stretching the lead to 4–0 before Illinois recorded its second out.
“I rounded first and got to second and realized how close of a play it was,” Ward said. “But it was an awesome feeling, getting a clutch hit and helping the team win.”
The Tigers didn’t score again until the sixth, but the early cushion held as Illinois continued to leave runners on base. Junior right‑hander Keyler Gonzalez took over in the fourth and worked out of trouble twice, including a bases‑loaded jam in the fifth. Illinois finally broke through in the sixth on a dropped third strike that allowed a run to score, but left‑hander Kadden Drew entered and recorded two quick outs to keep the lead at 4–1.
Missouri answered immediately. Benson led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and later scored on a sacrifice fly from catcher Jamal George, restoring a four‑run lead. Still, Jackson felt the game brought plenty of opportunities, opportunities to do what is encouraged in London, to mind the gap.
“I think we missed too many opportunities at the end of the day,” Jackson said. “I’m not going to give back any wins, but we had opportunities to really break the game open, and we didn’t take advantage of those. “That’s something that played this last weekend. That’s something that played out two weekends ago. We’re still in that space of being able to overcome that and make those adjustments, which I think that we will do, but at the end of the day, we figured out a way to be able to get it done, and that’s all that matters.”
The win and the night meant something more, not just for Jackson but the freshman Ward, who were both happy to play in an environment that brought out the hundreds of fans in the Tigers contingent in the Missouri area.
“This environment here, with all it really shows the Mizzou fan base, like you can see more people from around this area instead of just Columbia. But it was awesome. And getting that hit felt really good, knowing that you’re helping the team win. That’s my main goal.”
