Game Day: Mizzou Baseball vs. Illinois-Chicago Flames

4:25 PM UPDATE: Game time still set for 6PM. Storms have passed (for now at least); light rain in Columbia. Time to put on the galoshes and get ready to head to Taylor Stadium!

Poor weather and broadcasting conflicts will impact MU Baseball's home opening weekend.

■ Radio/Video: TRUE: The Zimmer Radio Group is the exclusive broadcaster of Mizzou Sports beginning with the 2010-11 season. TRUE: ZRG has no less than SEVEN radio stations serving CoMo. FALSE: Seven stations are not enough to handle more than one sport going on simultaneously. But TRUE: At least this weekend the athletic department has a plan:

There has been a slight change in the radio plans for this weekend's game as Saturday's broadcast will be conflicted by Mizzou men's and women's basketball. The first game of the double-header on Saturday will be carried by KTGR 1580 AM/100.5 AM but with the women's basketball game slated for a 4 p.m. start as well, MUTigers.com will offer the second game for free on Mizzou All-Access along with a video stream. Fans wishing to tune into the broadcast can access the game at MUTigers.tv on Saturday. (mutigers.com)

■ So what's there to do if games get rained out or rescheduled?

The True/False Film Festival is in Columbia this weekend. Plenty of good documentary films to take in - all INDOORS! Details HERE

■ Baseball looks for fresh start and return to glory in 2011 (uicflames.com)

In 2010, the season did not go quite as planned. The Flames finished third (22-28, 15-9 Horizon League) in the Horizon League last year after finishing the regular season in first place in each of the previous eight campaigns. UIC won two games at the 2010 Horizon League Championship before bowing out to the Valparaiso Crusaders in an elimination game on May 28, 2010 for a fourth-place finish.

■ The UIC Flames are 1-6 so far in 2011 and have been outscored 63-27

• St. Louis 8, UIC 1
• UT-PA 5, UIC 4
• St. Louis 17, UIC 7
• UT-PA 9, UIC 1
• UIC 10, Kentucky 8
• UK 13, UIC 3
• UK 3, UIC 1

■ Mizzou and the NCAA's new bat regulations (KBIAExtra.com)

Mizzou, like every other team in college baseball, will have to deal with these new bat regulations by finding ways to score not based off the long ball. But for Mizzou especially, that means getting on base at a better rate—a .317 team OBP won’t cut it—and aiming more for the gaps than over the walls—something the team may have been shooting for anyway given its makeup.

■ @CollegeSplits on Twitter:

• New bat update, comparing first 10 days of 2011 vs. first 10 of 2010. 2010: HRs were 2.8% of BIP. 2011: 1.8% of BIP. Huge.

• Also, with new bats, run scoring down even more last weekend. Again, thru first 10 days: 2010: 7.5 runs/game. 2011: 6.25 runs/game.

■ And some things never change, do they? Baseball losing streak hits 3 for the first time since 2008 (hornedfrogsports.com)

Assistant Coach Tony Vitello was ejected from the game for arguing a non-call. Home plate umpire Mark Denezin failed to grant timeout to Jason Coats allowing the DBU pitcher to deliver a strike and put him behind in the count. It enraged the crowd, Coats and the coaching staff, but it was Vitello who was dismissed from the game by first base umpire Jon Wolfe. I know Coach Schlossnagle works to avoid ejections by his team and staff, but the call was unfortunate. But for me, I wish Vitello had gotten his moneys-worth. For a team that needs a spark and seems to be stuck in a rut, a Bobby Cox/Lou Pinella tirade might have been just what the team needed. Oh well, water under the bridge.