Missouri Tigers Baseball Blasts Their Way To Series Win Over Alabama

The Missouri Tigers baseball team continued its remarkable turnaround season with mammoth series win over the Alabama Crimson Tide over the weekend, in an exciting stretch of days for Mizzou sports.

Thanks to great pitching and an eruption of hitting, No. 18 Mizzou conquered Bama, won its fourth conference series of the season, and pushed its way in to first place of the SEC East. The Tigers improve to 26-14 on the season (12-6, SEC) and are now +3 on conference wins from a season ago with still half the season yet to play.

The Tigers capitalized on fantastic pitching from Tanner Houck and Andrew Schwaab as the Tigers split a Saturday double header with the Crimson Tide. Houck, who took the first game’s loss, deserved a better fate, throwing 8 strike outs and pitching 5 scoreless innings. The Tigers dropped the game, after winning a day prior. Schwaab pitched a gem in the second game Saturday, getting 3.1 innings of scoreless pitching in a 5-3 win to claim the series for Missouri.

In the last game of the weeken, Mizzou’s bats came alive in the middle of the game, going yard 3 times in 4^th inning and adding another homer in the 6^th en route to a 5-3 win. Star hitters Jake Ring, Ryan Howard and Trey Harris did the damage in the fourth and John Lester two-run homer in the bottom of the 6^th was ultimately the game winner. Bama starter Geoffrey Bramblett had allowed only 4 home runs all season before allowing the four homers to Missouri this weekend.

Alabama got Saturday started with a big game from its star, Casey Hughston, whose two-run shot in the second inning of the first game put the Tide in the driver seat, eventually adding four more in 6-0 win. But Mizzou got the better of Bama, bookending that shutout loss (the Tigers’ first of the season) with a 4-3 win Friday and the home run fest in the second game Saturday to win the series.

With this fifth conference series win of the year, the Missouri Tigers baseball matched their combined SEC series wins from the previous two seasons, their first two years in the conference. It would seem, third times a charm. Missouri now jumps into first place of the SEC east, but an important series next weekend with Vanderbilt lies ahead. The winner of that series will have sole possession of the top seat in the division.

This is a great time for the Missouri Tigers baseball program. Entering as a bottom feeder in the conference in 2013, Mizzou has made a complete turn around, and is now competing for a potential SEC championship. Their No. 18 ranking will likely get even better next week and that’s great news for Missouri fans. The Tiger’s success shows just how much they truly do belong in the Southeastern Conference and is yet another great success story for 2015.

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