Photo from mutigers.com

Temperatures have been unseasonably cold this March in Mid-Missouri.  We are less than a week away from April and we still have snow on the ground and temperatures are struggling to get out of the 30′s. It’s not the weather were used to seeing in early Spring and it definitely doesn’t feel like baseball season. Unfortunately one thing that might be even colder than the weather, are the bats for the Missouri Tigers baseball team.

The Tigers have struggled in the early going of the 2013 season, and their biggest weakness has been their hitting. Mizzou is only hitting .240 as a team through 20 games this season, which ranks dead last in the SEC. They also rank last in the SEC in runs scored, home runs, RBI’s, walks, and on-base percentage.

The offensive woes for Missouri has them sitting at 8-12 overall and 2-4 in the SEC. The Tigers join Florida and Georgia, as the only other SEC teams to have a below .500 record overall. The Tigers only have two players on their roster that are currently hitting over .300.

Dane Opel and Dylan Kelly have been the only bright spots in Mizzou’s lineup. Opel is hitting .358 with 2 homers and 11 RBI’s, and Kelly is hitting .354 and also has 11 RBI’s. The remainder of the Missouri Tigers are all hitting below .275.

Mizzou’s pitching staff has been pretty solid over the last couple weeks. The Tigers rank 9th in the SEC with a 3.28 ERA, but they have a 2.92 ERA in six SEC games. Ace, Rob Zastryzny, has also improved since posting a 6.25 ERA in his first two starts. Zastryzny is 1-4 and has improved his ERA to 4.05. Rob leads the team in strikeouts with 31, and he’s only walked 12 batters in 33.1 innings. Zastryzny has a 2.78 ERA and 24 strikeouts in his last 3 starts.

The Tigers have struggled on the road this year, losing 8 of 9 games, but they are 7-4 at home. The Tigers return to Taylor Stadium this week when they host Nebraska-Omaha on Wednesday and the No. 2 ranked LSU Tigers this weekend. Temperatures are supposed to warm up this weekend, so get out there and support Mizzou baseball at Taylor Stadium.

Photo from mutigers.com

The start of the 2013 baseball season has been a struggle for the Missouri Tigers. Mizzou has been swept by Southern Miss and Memphis in back-to-back weekends, and have been outscored 35-11 in the six losses.

Missouri has been anemic offensively, hitting only .190 as a team and scoring less than 2 runs per game. In fact, catcher Dylan Kelly is the only Tiger hitting above .300. Kelly has been the only bright spot in Mizzou’s lineup. He’s hitting .412 with a .444 on-base percentage.

3B Keaton Steele has a team high 4 RBI’s, but he’s only hitting .222. The rest of the Tigers have been bad and that’s an understatement. Missouri has 9 players that have started at least two games that are hitting under .250.

Missouri’s pitching staff hasn’t been great, but it’s been good enough to have a better record than 0-6. The Tigers have given up 35 total runs, but only 28 of those runs have been earned. Mizzou’s defense has committed 12 errors so far in the early going, which certainly doesn’t help the pitching staff.

Brett Graves has been the best starter through the first two weekends. Graves has an 0-1 record but a 3.18 ERA in 11.1 innings. He also has 10 strikeouts and only 3 walks. Teams are only hitting .159 against Graves.

The 2013 “Friday Night Starter” for Missouri is Rob Zastryzny. Zastryzny has struggled this year in the ace role. He has posted an 0-2 record with a 6.25 ERA in his first two starts.

Friday, March 1, Missouri will play their first game in Columbia. The Tigers will host Northwestern March 1-3. Northwestern is off to a 4-2 start this season.

Photo by Ben Walton

The Missouri Tigers started the 2013 baseball season on a losing note Friday at Southern Mississippi.  The Tigers were shut down by Golden Eagles pitcher Andrew Pierce. Pierce gave up one earned run and struck out nine batters in seven innings of work, as Southern Mississippi beat Mizzou 5-2. Pierce was a first-team All-Conference USA selection in 2012 after going 7-4 with a 1.99 ERA.

Rob Zastryzny recorded the loss for Missouri. Zastryzny gave up four hits and three runs in 5.1 innings. Southern Mississippi only had six hits in the ballgame, but the Tiger’s pitching staff struggled to keep runners off the base paths. Missouri walked six batters and hit two others. The Tiger’s defense also committed two errors.

Newcomer, Kendall Keeton, had a terrific opening day. Keeton went 3-3 with an RBI. Keeton joins the Tigers in 2013 after playing the previous two seasons at Walters State Community College in Morristown, TN.

The Tigers and Eagles could be considered lucky to even be playing on Friday, as an EF-4 tornado struck Hattiesburg, MS on Sunday evening. The tornado injured at least 19 people in Hattiesburg and damaged parts of Southern Mississippi’s campus. The University of Missouri is asking all fans that are tweeting about the games this weekend to use the hashtag: #PrayForHattiesburg.

Mizzou and Southern Miss will continue the series tomorrow at 2:00pm and Sunday at 1:00pm in Hattiesburg.