Saturday, March 16, 2013

Bully For Old Mizzou



What a weekend!!  I sat through all 3 games of Mizzou Baseball's first SEC series:
  • The amazing record-setting crowd on Friday night that witnessed the Tigers battle the Gamecocks for 9 innings, losing by 3 runs.
  • Game 2, the first of the double header, with the temperature in the mid-40s limiting the crowd to about a third of Friday's, another close fought game that the Tigers lost 2-0.
  • The final game, with temps at 42 and dropping, spitting rain, bitter winds, and a marvelous 4-0 victory.

I couldn't be more proud of this Tiger Baseball team.

They outhit the Gamecocks for the series. Played tough and close in every game. Never gave up.

They only won 1 of the 3. Only. Against arguably the best team in D1 over the past few years. Against a team that was predicted to absolutely crush Mizzou.

This series should give the team confidence that they do belong in the SEC, they can compete and win in the SEC, and will not be the whipping boys of the conference, they will not be donkey stomped or violated or any other of the colorful descriptions used by fans of other SEC teams AND Mizzou "fans".

If this team can match up to 5th ranked South Carolina this well, there isn't any team on Mizzou's SEC schedule that isn't beatable.

This may not be a team that's likely to win the SEC any time soon. As I've said all along, they can legitimately be expected to finish 7th or 8th in the conference - somewhere near the middle of the pack - just like they did in the Big 12.

Could we hope for better?  Certainly.  Should we settle for a 1-2 showing for any SEC series? Absolutely not.

But this is a team that has earned the right to be respected and supported by True Sons of Missouri.

 The Predictions

From Tigerboard.com:
"Carolina is going in dry this weekend...No lube in sight all year. Will be painful."

"its going to be a bloodbath"

"I love the SEC and glad we are in it but we are going to get absolutely ass raped in baseball this year."

"In baseball, we are going to get drilled often in the SEC."

The Series

♦ South Carolina won the series, 2-1

♦ South Carolina was expected to sweep Missouri

♦ Missouri shut out South Carolina in game 3, 4-0. The last time USC was shut out was April 2011, by The Citadel

♦ The Gamecocks outscored Missouri 6-5 for the entire series. The largest margin of victory was in MU's 4-0 win.

♦ Missouri out-hit South Carolina for the series, 23-19

The Nay-Sayers

♦ From SECRant.com: "Carolina will forever be the first SEC win for Mizzou, and with the way Mizzou has been play they could very well be the only SEC win for Mizzou for a while..."

♦ From Tigerboard.com (addresssed to a South Carolina fan): "I can't believe you let us win a game...that should not have happened. Sorry that probably ruined your chances at winning the SEC. Good luck the rest of the way... dead serious. This isn't softball. we are not good."

The Kudos


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