MU 12, UIC 8, etc.

■ MU baseball team much improved in win, reports the Columbia Missourian:

Jamieson said some credit can go to the home runs, but he also said that good hits usually come when you aren’t thinking about them.

“We started taking better swings,” Jamieson said. “Sometimes when you hit home runs, it can be a really good thing. Sometimes you can hit them and it’s not. We had a lot of guys in the lineup trying to hit the ball off that building out there until later in the game, and they started taking better swings.”

■ If it makes you feel any better about MU's loss to UIC on Tuesday, it was an "ugly day" for upsets and near upsets all around D-1 Baseball that day, including

• St. Louis U (Mizzou's opponent next Wednesday at Busch Stadium) knocking
off #11 Mississippi, 15-11
• Wright State (?) beat #6 Georgia, 8-5
• Ohio State clobbered #7 Miami, 7-1
• #13 Georgia Tech lost to Georgia State, 10-1
• Brown (3-8 on the year) absolutely clobbered #17 Pepperdine, 20-8

■ Kendall Rogers of Rivals.com has a few thoughts on the Big 12:

Goodness gracious the Big 12 title race is turning out to be a huge cluster of you know what. Barring a major surprise, the race is going to come down to the final week of the season. Kansas, yes, Kansas, currently leads the top of the standings with a 3-0 conference record after sweeping Texas for the first time in school history last weekend. Oklahoma follows at 2-1, while Baylor, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Missouri and Texas Tech all have conference marks of 3-3. Texas, meanwhile, is in last place. Imagine that. Well, I think the cream eventually will rise to the top, but there are three teams that I believe have major causes for concern and that's the Longhorns, Aggies and Cowboys. Texas just can't hit the baseball and has a .271 batting average after the Kansas series. That's pathetic. And by the way, Texas, the schedule is not going to get any easier after this weekend's series at home against Texas Tech. A&M, meanwhile, has a poor bullpen and strangely enough, pitching has been killing them at times. Also, the offense has been struggling lately. I still think the Aggies have the potential, based on the games I've seen, particularly against Baylor, to be a very good team. But right now, they're playing like a No. 2 seed hitting the road. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, has to get better outings from ace pitchers Andy Oliver and Tyler Lyons. I said before the season the dynamic duo essentially were two auto wins for the Pokes on the weekend. Well, not anymore, and don't expect teams to be intimidated by them after what transpired up in Lincoln, Neb., over the weekend.

I'm not sure I agree with him that UT, A&M and OSU are still the teams to beat. right now the conference looks pretty much like a free-for-all. Texas Tech is the team most likely to finish #10. #9 will probably be decided on the last day of the regular season and any of the other 9 could land there.

■ Speaking of Rivals.com, I'd recommend you listen to their weekly 1-hour show about college baseball, but apparently this week they ditched the baseball show because there just wasn't enough coverage of March Madness.