The Missouri Tigers baseball team gets set to battle with in state rival Missouri State for a one-game set in Columbia.
Unlike other sports, Missouri State is power baseball program, and especially this season. The No. 15 ranked Bears come into Columbia looking to own the state, giving the Tigers, who jumped into the 14th-ranked spot last weekend with a series win over Alabama, one of their tougher challenges of the 2015 season.
A tough highly ranked team is nothing new for Tigers, though. They’ve faced 8 top-25 opponents thus far this season, including 4 in a row at one point, and 3 in the top 10.
40 games into the season, the Tigers (26-14, 12-6 SEC) have excelled in a turaround season that has seen exceptional pitching and big bats from young players. That has culminated into a SEC East division lead as the team begins with its sights set on the college baseball tournament, which is in the not too distant future.
The Tigers, fresh off their 5th series win of the season, will be put to the test Tuesday night.
The Missouri State team has been lights out on the pitching mound thus far this year, which could pose a considerable challenge to the Missouri batter who, while very impressive this season, are young and have shown their tendencies to be rattled by superior pitching.
Tonight’s starter for MSU, Andy Cheray, will be a familiar face. He tormented the Tigers last year, throwing 7 scoreless innings, 8 strikeouts and allowing only 4 hits en route to a 9-0 win over Mizzou Springfield. Cheray will get the nod tonight on the mound.
The Tigers have pitching of their own to help balance the battle, with three guys ranking in the top ten in ERA and opponent on base percentage. MU pitcher John Miles gets the go on the mound tonight, looking to give Missouri another non-conference win over a highly ranked opponent. Mizzou also faced then No. 8 Arkansas Pine Bluff in which Miles earned a win earlier this season.
Keep your eyes peeled for some key players tonight for MSU that could be dangerous hitters (they hit for power). Although, the toughest task tonight will be outlasting the Bears pitching. This could be a really low scoring game at Taylor field.
Missouri looks to keep the ship sailing before it faces a must-win series vs. Vanderbilt to decide who takes the lead in the SEC East division next weekend.
Tonight’s matchup is the only known meeting to ever feature these two teams as both ranked opponents. First pitch is at 6:00 p.m.
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