With a sweep on the line, the entire Mizzou baseball roster came through — both at the plate and on the mound — highlighted by a near cycle from Jackson Lovich, nearly two years to the day after his older brother Ross accomplished the feat against Georgia in 2023.
Kicking off the game, Mizzou leadoff hitter Jackson Lovich launched a home run to quickly put the Tigers on the board — and that wouldn’t be their only run of the inning. Back-to-back batters reached on a single and a hit-by-pitch, and Kaden Peer roped a single through the left side to score Cayden Nicoletto, giving the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
That turned out to be all the Tigers needed for the win, but they continued to add on. In the third, a leadoff triple by Lovich came around to score on a Seals RBI single. They tacked on another run in the fifth with another RBI from Seals, then broke the game open with a three-run sixth inning.
The first run in the sixth came when the Aggies loaded the bases with no outs and a balk brought a runner home. Lovich followed with his third hit of the day — a two-RBI double — to extend the lead. The Tigers kept the momentum going in the seventh, putting up another three runs on five straight hits to start the inning, pushing the score to 10-1.
Just like in the previous two games of the series, these runs backed up strong pitching — and this time, it was Wil Libbert leading the way. Coming off a solid outing against Georgia last weekend, Libbert one-upped himself on Sunday. His only blemish came on a leadoff home run in the fourth, which ended an 18-inning streak of unearned runs allowed by the Tigers.
Other than that, Libbert was fantastic on the mound, delivering one of his best outings of the season.
Wil Libbert’s final line: 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K, 76 TP
After Libbert, the Tigers turned to Josh McDevitt as the first arm out of the pen, and he continued Mizzou’s dominance on the mound with his best outing of the year. Over the final four innings, McDevitt allowed just one baserunner while striking out five to close out the 10-1 win.
Every hitter in the Tigers’ lineup, except Tyler Macon, collected a hit in the final game of the series, with five Tigers recording multi-hit performances. The highlight of the offense was Jackson Lovich, who went 3-for-5 with a double, triple, and home run. His three extra-base hits accounted for the majority of Mizzou’s five on the day, with the other two coming from doubles by Kaden Peer and Jeider Hernandez.
This led to a massive 15-hit performance for the Tigers, who produced most of their runs through steady small-ball hitting. Despite the offensive surge, they still left eight runners on base. Over the course of the series, Mizzou outscored Texas A&M 23-8.
This marks the Tigers’ first sweep of the Aggies since a three-game series in College Station in 2006, and their first SEC sweep since taking all three games against Florida in April 2023.
One area the Tigers struggled with was allowing the leadoff runner to reach base, which happened in four different innings. However, they responded effectively, erasing three of those opportunities with double plays.
Libbert (3-3) earned the win, with McDevitt picking up his first save of the season. The Aggies’ Myles Patton (3-4) was tagged with the loss.
The Tigers will close out the regular season next weekend at home at Taylor Stadium with a three-game series against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, beginning Thursday at 6 p.m. with a white-out game.