With Mizzou baseball’s season officially in the books — for all the wrong reasons — I figured it was the perfect time to look back at the worst conference records in each SEC team’s history. Just a little something to lift everyone’s spirits.
Disclaimer: Due to rule changes over the years and teams shifting conferences, not all have played a full 30-game SEC schedule. These records reflect each team’s worst conference finish in a season with at least 24 games.
Texas: 7-17 (2013)
Missing the Big 12 Tournament for just the third time in program history to that point, the 2013 Texas Longhorns were coming off a strong four-year run that included hosting Regionals and Super Regionals three times in Austin and making two trips to Omaha. However, their No. 74 RPI ranking at the end of the season marked a new low for the program and signaled the beginning of a decline under longtime head coach Augie Garrido, who would be let go in 2016.
Texas' biggest issue in 2013 was a lack of offense. The Longhorns finished third to last in the Big 12 with a .260 team batting average. Just five players hit above .250 for the season, and while all five appeared in more than 45 games, they couldn’t carry the lineup alone. The rest of the roster — limited to those who played in at least five games — combined to hit just .195.
Even the hitters producing at the top were doing so mostly through singles. Of the team’s 430 total hits, only 100 went for extra bases — the second-lowest mark in the conference. The lone bright spot was triples, as Texas finished second in the Big 12 with 19. However, they ranked last in both doubles (69) and home runs (12). All of this resulted in the Longhorns failing to reach 200 total runs across their 51-game season.
Fortunately for Texas, the only reason they finished the season with a positive run differential — and managed to win any games at all — was their dominant pitching staff. The Longhorns led the Big 12 in ERA (2.53), WHIP (1.13), hits allowed per nine innings and home runs allowed per nine. The rotation was anchored by starter Dillon Peters, who posted a sub-2.00 ERA. Every pitcher on the roster who appeared in more than 10 games finished the season with an ERA under 4.00, including both starters and relievers.
Their other two primary starters, each making 13 starts, recorded ERAs in the low-to-mid 2.00s. The bullpen was headlined by freshman Travis Duke, who finished with an impressive 1.53 ERA, and junior Corey Knebel, who was selected in the first round of the 2013 MLB Draft. Knebel’s season, however, included two suspensions — one for violating team rules and another for providing a urine sample to help a teammate pass a drug test.