Everything has gone better than expected for the 2015 Missouri Tigers baseball team. They are 26-14 overall and are 12-6 in the SEC, or the best baseball conference in the country.
They’ve won games with timely, opportunistic hitting, a solid to very good starting rotation, and big contributions from their freshmen class.
That freshmen class was one of the highest ranked in the country last year. Head coach Tim Jamieson wasted no time seeing what some of those guys can do as Trey Harris and Brett Bond have been everyday players, and Tanner Houck has been the regular Saturday starter.
Houck has been nothing short of sensational, and was recently named to the Golden Spikes Watch List, the top award for a college baseball player.
While those three have played exceptional, the real prize of Jamieson’s 2014 class was infielder Shane Benes. Benes was ranked in the top 40 in the country by Baseball America and is the son of former No. 1 overall pick in the 1988 MLB Draft, Andy Benes.
Missouri Tigers baseball pitcher Shane Benes (3) talks with teammates before a game against UALR on Tuesday, April 14th, 2015 in Columbia, Mo. The Tigers would later lose the game to the Trojans 4-3.
Benes was on a fast track to be picked very early in the MLB draft last year, after he batted .417 with 11 home runs during his junior season at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis. One of those home runs was a walk-off to win the Class 4 state championship.
Unfortunately, he suffered a torn ACL during his basketball season and had to miss his entire senior baseball season. Had he played through his senior season, it was likely that Benes would have been drafted in the early goings of the 2014 draft.
It was a terrible break for him, but Jamieson is happy to have someone as talented as Benes on his ball club. Benes was cleared for baseball activities when he got to campus this summer, but he again was dealt a terrible hand.
During team workouts in September, he suffered another torn ACL, setting him back even further. Although it wasn’t as severe as his first tear, he was still expected to miss the 2015 season.
He made enough progress in his rehab for there to be a discussion for a possible return, and last week it was announced he would make his long awaited debut in game one in the doubleheader against Alabama on Saturday.
Benes was in the lineup as the designated hitter batting 7th. He did not disappoint from his very first at-bat as bombed a triple off the wall, just missing a home run. He later added two more singles and finished the game 3-4 in a 6-0 loss to the Tide.
Missouri Tigers baseball fans couldn’t have asked for a better debut for a highly touted prospect. He won’t go 3-4 in every game, and he showed that he actually is human by going hitless in the second game of the doubleheader, but he battles in every at-bat, and will take advantage of pitchers’ mistakes.
The excitement for Benes’ potential is not unbridled, it is very real. While the second ACL tear put his college debut on hold, Tim Jamieson is certainly glad to hold on to him for the next couple of years.
There is already a lot of buzz on what this Missouri team’s chances for the postseason and advancing deep, and if Benes can contribute a couple timely hits over the stretch run, he may be the final piece to this overachieving Tigers team.