No matter what’s happened for the Missouri State Bears in the past four games of the NCAA regular season, Mizzou baseball came out like a team that just won a road series in Southeastern Conference play. Jordan and the reigning Co-Freshman SEC player of the week, Blaize Ward, have a couple of things in common. They’re both freshman and are currently red hot at the plate.
Ward’s 8-f0r-13 weekend wasn’t just a blip; it’s been a consistent theme outside of the friendly confines of Taylor Stadium. He
opened the score sheet from the jump, driving in the Tigers’ first run of the game on an RBI single, and one batter later, Jase Woita did the same, scoring Ward from third to give the Tigers the lead.
Blaize is a hitter,“ Mizzou head coach Kerrick Jackson said. ”He will tell you he’s a hitter by definition, and so he’s comfortable in that box. But then you see some moments where he’s a freshman and where it speeds up on him, but he’s always seemed to find a way where he could settle himself back in.”
The hot streak for Ward at the plate has now extended to seven games, marking the consecutive number of times he’s been in the hit column.
On a day of celebration for Donovan Jordan, he made it count even more. Deadlocked at two in the bottom half of the third, Jordan’s birthday didn’t just see the candles light up; the scoreboard did as well. The former Tiger, who was on the mound, Brock Lucas, presented a second pitch to Jordan that was too nice to pass up.
The three-run homer that traveled 349 feet over the left field wall marked the second big fly of the season and was a part of Jordan’s resurgence since he began to start on Mar. 21 against Tennessee regularly. The slugger has at least one hit in seven of his last eight games, of which he’s started six.
“We actually talked about it today, saying a birthday bomb wouldn’t be bad,“ Jordan said. Then it happened, in the biggest moment of the game… I was thinking about getting my swing off. The last few at-bats, I’d been taking a lot of pitches, so I told myself, “If I see one, I’m going to drive it.”
At the plate, the results might not have thrilled Jackson, in particular, the Tigers not getting a run across the plate after the third inning. The pitching from right-handed reliever Keyler Gonzalez was nothing short of efficient.
After 2.2 innings and three earned runs allowed by Jackson Sobel, Gonzalez allowed just two hits, struck out nine, and pitched six shutout innings, after being pulled with two outs in the top of the ninth inning. The nine strikeouts marked a new career high for Gonzalez.
“Outstanding performance,” Jackson said. “That’s a dude we knew, when we recruited him, was a strike-thrower and a competitor. When you know his life story, you know he enjoys every day of life, and for him to go out there in that situation and compete his tail off, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
After Trey Lawrence came in and finished off the final out, earning his first save in a Missouri uniform, the Tigers clinched yet another big victory against one of the most potent offenses in the nation, days after earning their first SEC road series win of the season, this victory defined what this team has been about all season long, after winning three total SEC games last year.
Building the blocks back from the ground up.
“It’s awesome because it keeps building on what we’ve been talking about,” Jackson said. “The youth and the players we’re bringing in are having success in SEC play, in crucial moments, and that’s huge for the program.”
