After its 5-1 series opening loss to the Gamecocks in which the Tigers mustered two hits, Missouri baseball was ripe for an offensive resurgence. On a cold Friday evening at Taylor Stadium, neither side was able to muster much offense. Three combined hits, one of which was a bunt single, came from the Tigers and Gamecocks for the opening five innings.
Behind the eight-inning, 10 strikeout performance from South Carolina starting pitcher Amp Phillips, the Gamecocks squeaked away with a 1-0 victory
that can only be described in two words: pitchers duel.
“We just didn’t make any adjustments,” Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson said. “(Amp) kept doing the same thing over and over again, and we were late to a fastball that was good, but not above-average. We never adjusted. Nobody even really tried to be early and do something different, so we got the results we got.”
Morris Hodges, who was the home plate umpire had a workout for the same time frame. The pair of starting pitchers, Brady Kehlenbrink and Amp Phillips had each struck out at least six batters by the end of the fifth. It took a throwing error from the usually sure-handed Missouri shortstop Kam Durnin to get the first Gamecocks run across the plate in the top half of the fourth.
It was a night at the plate for the Tigers where on top of all of the strikeouts and three failed bunt attempts, the little things weren’t going their way either. A potential rally starting infield single by Kam Durnin in the bottom of the fourth was snuffed out, by Durnin himself. After the Tigers next batter, Pierre Seals came up to the dish, Durnin was gunned down by Gamecocks catcher Talmadge LeCroy at second base.
Seals’ walk right after posed the “what if” scenario immediately after, which in an ideal world for Jackson’s squad, no stolen base attempt by Durnin, a Seals walk and two runners on with one out and Jase Woita coming up to the plate. In reality, a Woita fly-out to right field ended the bottom of the fourth, and another inning in the books for Phillips.
“As I told them yesterday, trying to get a hit is not an approach,” Jackson said. “We need to change that, and we need to figure out and go back to what we’ve done at times. Its not like the concept is foreign to us, as when we put up some runs, we’ve had quality at bats up and down the line that we’ve understood what the pitchers were doing. We’ve made adjustments in game at times, and some guys have even made adjustments at from at-bat to at-bat and for the last two days, we just haven’t been able to do that.”
The bottom of the fifth nearly yielded a run across the plate, once again, the clutch factor for the Tigers was missing. After a leadoff single from Kaden Peer, followed by a Mateo Serna single one batter later, a sacrafice bunt attempt by Eric Masionet found foul territory and the glove of LeCroy. Keegan Knutson connected on a hard line drive which was caught by third baseman Erik Parker, signifying the frustrating tone of the Tigers evening offensively.
Jackson was blunt and to the point post-game on what he thought was missing in the batters box Friday evening.
“Fight, plain and simple,” Jackson said. Brady comes out there and just pitches his tail off, and offensively, we didn’t even come close to matching the competitive effort and spirit that he had.”
The sixth, seventh and eighth innings for MU’s offense went similar to the song by the Beat in 1982. 1-2-3. Phillips continue to pitch his way to a multitude of season-highs, eight innings pitched, 10 strikeouts. In the bottom of the seventh, Jase Woita appealed that his groundout went off of his leg, therefore deeming the ball dead.
The umpires, after convening in the middle of the diamond, disagreed. Cameron Benson then struck out, for his third punch-out of the evening at the plate. The ninth inning for the Tigers was the last gasp, the last hope to give themselves a chance to win their first SEC game at Taylor Stadium since Mar. 23 2024.
A first pitch single for MU lead-off hitter Blaize Ward began the ninth inning. Kam Durnin quickly followed with another small-ball attempt by the Tigers, a bunt that this time went succesfully for Mizzou, after Parker failed to get a good grip on the ball, putting two runners on first and second, nobody out and Pierre Seals at the plate.
The next three plays led to the ultimate downfall for Missouri.
After a sacrafice bunt attempt by Seals went foul, an attempted double steal by the Tigers went haywire, as pinch-runner Isaiah Frost was thrown out at third, giving the Gamecocks a crucial opening out.
Seals proceded to strike out swinging and Woita, the former Gamecock, couldn’t do damage to his old team as he flew out to end a painful home loss that had few but major missed opportunities for MU.
“We had options there,” Jackson said. “Bunting is not necessarily (Pierre’s) forte as you saw with the first pitch that he attempted to bunt that we fouled off. At that point, to be able to put ourselves in a position to move the runners, it was we’ll hit and run here, I don’t care where the ball goes it just had to go forward. It could’ve been a 15,000 foot chopper that just moved the runners up, and with the way that he can be at times, he averages 100 miles an hour exit speed every time he puts the barrel on the ball. So you roll the dice there, because bunting just is not his thing.”
THE ULTIMATE REDEMPTION START FOR KEHLENBRINK
Coming into his Friday evening outing against South Carolina, Kehlenbrink’s last two outings were far from noteworthy on the positive spectrum. After nearly three inning a piece and nine and seven earned runs respectively given up against Texas A&M and Kentucky, the momentum wasn’t on his side.
Any negative carryover from those pair of outings was simply non-existent in Kehlenbrink’s outing against the Gamecocks. The left-hander pitched nothing short of in Mizzou baseball twitter’s words, “ a gem.”
7.1 innings pitched, two hits, zero earned runs and 10 strikeouts, just one short of his career-high mark he established on Mar. 8 against UIC.
“You never really have a bad outing if you learn from it,” Kehlenbrink said. “Me and the pitching coaches, Drew and Nick, sat in Drew’s office and watched some video and realized my mechanics were a little off. We worked a lot this week on getting back in gear, and I went out and executed.”
In his previous two starting appearances, the walks amounting to run scoring opportunities was a nagging issue for Kehlenbrink, giving up nine combined in the pair of outings. Zero free passes were issued to the Gamecocks with the one run coming from a slightly errant throw by Durnin, that just pulled Woita off the first base bag.
The lone run wasn’t easily given by Kehlenbrink, it was very fought for and earned the hard way. The addition of the Tigers pitching coach Drew Dickinson has made this theme much more consistent as opposed to last season.
The way he works with all of us and helps us develop is huge” Kehlenbrink said. “He doesn’t miss a bullpen, he’s always there watching us, helping us improve our repertoire, and helping us throw strikes.”
UP NEXT
Mizzou will look to avoid a series sweep on Saturday at 2:00 P.M against the Gamecocks. Both starting pitchers are still yet to be announced for both teams.
