Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Home Runs Give Tigers 4-2 Triumph Over Hilltoppers

J. Schoonmaker, Musgrave Hit Circuit Clouts(Columbia Daily Tribune, April 7, 1954)

The Missouri Tigers employed baseball's most effective weapon - the home run - and got some tight pitching from a trio of hurlers as they downed the Ft. Leonard Wood Hilltoppers, 4-2, in their home opener at Rollins field here yesterday afternoon.

The Bengals were outhit by the solidiers, 9 to 5, but round-trippers by outfielders Bob Musgrave and Jerry Schoonmaker, each with a man on base, provided the margin of victory and avenged a 6-3 setback at Ft. Wood last Saturday.

Musgrave's homer, a solid wallop to the embankment beyond the right field fence, came off Ft. Wood starter Wayne Tjaden in the first inning after Duane Dickinson had opened with a single. Schoonmaker lofted a towering drive over the left field fence in the sixth with Musgrave on base to widen Missouri's lead to 4-1. Musgrave had coaxed a pass from Lefty Ken Reitmeier, second of three Hilltopper hurlers.

Emil Kammer, Ed Cook and Bert Beckmann divided the mound work for the tigers with Kammer, who started the season as a third baseman, turning in the most effective performance. The sophomore right-hander blanked the Hilltoppers for three innings, gave up but one hit, and fanned three.

Cook and Beckmann each gave up a run, and managed to work their way out of several uncomfortable situations, with Beckmann drawing the loudest cheers by fanning two Hilltoppers with the bases loaded in the ninth.


''I guess the turning point was that second game,'' outfielder Bob Musgrave said. ''When we beat the big boys and we just got progressively better. The more you win, the more confidence you get, and the younger you are the better you get if you have any kind of talent. ''They beat us the first game and we came back and, by golly . . . we beat them. Maybe we were better than we thought we were.''
(Columbia Missourian, March 13, 1994)

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