GAME DAY: "...And That I Do Not Forgive"

Don Corleone
photo by Loren Javier flickr.com

"You talk about vengeance. Is vengeance going to bring your son back to you? Or my boy to me?

I forgo the vengeance of my son.

...But I'm a superstitious man and if some unlucky accident should befall him, if he should get shot in the head by a police officer, or if should hang himself in his jail cell, or if he's struck by a bolt of lightening, then I'm going to blame some of the people in this room, and that I do not forgive."

(Don Corleone, The Godfather)

In 2012 the Tigers were swept in 3 games by the Dons at San Francisco, compiling a .155 batting average during the series.

SAN FRANCISCO DONS

♦ Be sure to check out Sam Nasci's Mizzou Matchup preview of the USF Dons.

♦ Dons Baseball has a great YouTube page, with some videos you might not expect. Check out The Search for Greatness and 2012 USF Dons Baseball World Series (which is not about baseball at all). And then there's this:

♦ Dons grab early lead, pull away to win 9-2 (azstarnet.com)

San Francisco jumped out to an early lead at Hi Corbett Field on Sunday and then pulled away for a 9-2 victory to avoid a sweep by 10th-ranked Arizona.

The Dons (5-7) scored a run in the first inning off UA starter Stephen Manthei who then loaded the bases before he was relieved by Cody Moffett. The lefthander retired the three batters he faced but gave up a run on a groundout to give the Dons a 2-0 edge...

♦ Nine Innings with Nino Giarratano (College Baseball Insider)

Who on your team would make the best 49er, and what position would he play?

Coach Nakamura would make a great 49er. At 5'2 he could hide in the huddle and sneak attack the Ravens!!! Ha ha. Our best chance is Justin Maffei, our senior center fielder, who could play DB or special teams...

HOME OPENER

♦ Mizzou baseball dominant in doubleheader home opener (KBIA Sports Extra)

“We’ve been on the verge for a week or two, we just needed to all finally push over that edge,” catcher Dylan Kelly said. “We’re gonna have to keep rolling in the next weeks, but I think we’re coming up pretty well.”

Kelly was once again the leader on offense for the Tigers, who’s bases-clearing single in the fourth inning of Game 2 broke that game open and paced Missouri to the large win. Kelly has swung a hot bat all season, but on Wednesday he didn’t have to lead the charge alone. Shortstop Josh Lester batted in a run in both games, second baseman Kendall Keeton had a combined four hits on the day and outfielder Scott Sommerfeld finally broke through at the plate, notching his first two hits on the season...

HI NOTES: 2 -0 At Home, $9.95 For Tex

OPENING DAY

The field and the grandstands were clear of snow, the afternoon was sunny and briskly cold, and the Tigers came ready to play.  Only a few hardy souls showed up to watch, and a number of those didn't stay for the entire double-header (myself included).  But the Tigers finally got the home opener behind them, and increased their winning percentage from .000 to .250

♦ Missouri baseball sweeps home-opening doubleheader (Columbia Missourian)

Both of Missouri's starting pitchers, junior college transfers Jace James and Keaton Steele, put the team in prime positions to win...

♦ Baseball gets first win of the season over Eastern Michigan (The Maneater)

Seventh time’s the charm...

♦ Tigers dominate second half of doubleheader, winning 7-1 (The Maneater)

The Tigers won handily over the Eagles 7-1 thanks to junior pitcher Keaton Steele offering five solid innings, only giving up two hits, and junior second baseman Kendall Keeton bashing out three hits and scoring twice...

♦ The Columbia Tribune has a set of great photos of the home opener double-header.

NO MORE FREE TEX

@lsufootball_net we are not allowed to webcast mizzou baseball games
— ESPN100.5/103.1 KTGR (@KTGRsports) March 6, 2013

This is the first season that KTGR.com does not have live streaming audio of the games.  It's a bit disappointing, but then I'm still getting my TV channels by way of rabbit ears.  Mizzou is actually one of the few major conference D-1 programs that was still giving it away for free.  Online streaming of the Mizzou Baseball Broadcasts IS still available ... for a price ... by signing up for Mizzou All Access. $9.95 a month will get you access.

MIZZOU BASEBALL IN SPRING TRAINING

♦ Bond's future? He hopes it's with Giants (mlb.com)

Bond played Little League with Scott Van Slyke, the son of center fielder Andy Van Slyke, who starred for St. Louis and Pittsburgh. One day, Andy Van Slyke mentioned to Bond that he possessed a Major League-quality right-handed swing. That kind of stuff tends to stick with a person into adulthood.

As Bond observed, "When things aren't going well, you can always remember, 'Well, Andy Van Slyke said ...' "

Bond has all but legitimized Van Slyke's scouting report. The switch-hitter has batted .313 in six Minor League seasons, including .332 last year at Triple-A Fresno. He has seized his opportunities in Cactus League action, hitting .500 (6-for-12) with a team-high 1.083 slugging percentage in seven games...

HI NOTES: Opening Day Blues

In case you missed the news, this weekend's home opener series with Northwestern has been cancelled.

So what to do on an Opening Day when there's no Opening Game?

♦ Check out Ashley Arp's Brothers Reunite on the Diamond video, about Mizzou's Dillon Everett and his brother, Northwestern's Colby Everett. The reunion got cancelled because of the snow, but the video is still great:

♦ Contemplate a couple of tweets regarding other battles Mizzou Baseball has faced this week (be sure to click on the link and see the picture on that first one):

So ya, you oughtta see what the other guy looks like...looks a little like this... lockerz.com/s/285529588
— Hunter Mense (@Hunter_Mense) February 28, 2013

Never pick a snow ball figh with a mizzou baseball player they got crazy aim!!
— Alex Oriakhi (@aoriakhi42) February 26, 2013

♦ Check out this acrobatic catch by outfielder Brett Williams on North Carolina State

x

♦ Take a listen to the High and Inside Podcast at College Baseball Today, with Mike Rooney and Eric Sorenson

HI NOTES: Home Crowds, Home Stand, Heroes

ATTENDANCE

Now that Kansas has finally had its home opener, the numbers are in for all the home openers in the Big 129 and SEC.  It paints a picture of just how far MU has to go to step up to what is expected in the SEC:

BIG 129

• 5.918  Texas vs. Duke, 2/18
• 5,314  Texas A&M vs. Illinois-Chicago, 2/17
• 2,681  Baylor vs. ORU, 2/17
• 2,605  Texas Tech vs. Missouri St, 2/17
• 1,073  Oklahoma vs. Hartford, 2/24
• 1,072  Kansas vs. North Dakota, 3/6
•   888  Kansas State vs. Pacific, 3/2
•   576  Oklahoma State vs. Dallas Baptist, 2/21
•   524  Missouri vs. Ball State, 3/2

SEC

• 8,242  South Carolina vs. Elon 2/17
• 8,006  Louisiana State vs. Air Force, 2/17
• 7,430  Ole Miss vs. Arkansas State, 2/21
• 6,317  Arkansas vs. Villanova, 2/17
• 5,356  Florida vs. Cal St-Fullerton, 2/17
• 4,864  Alabama vs. Florida Atlantic, 2/17
• 3,577  Auburn vs. Missouri, 2/17
• 3,449  Mississippi State vs. Washington St, 2/17
• 2,812  Tennessee vs. Northern Illinois, 2/17
• 2,411  Georgia vs. Presbyterian, 2/17
• 2,031  Vanderbilt vs. Oakland, 2/22
• 1,261  Kentucky vs. Buffalo, 2/24

GAME DAY

♦ Missouri evens record with 14-4 victory over Nebraska-Omaha (The Maneater)

Missouri grabbed the reins of the game by putting up three runs in the first inning. After senior third baseman Conner Mach singled to score junior right fielder Blake Brown, junior left fielder Dane Opel lofted a high fly ball that the wind carried beyond the left field bullpen for a solo home run.

“I just barreled it, and luckily it had enough backspin to carry and the wind was definitely blowing out,” Opel said.
. . .
Missouri has scored almost twice the runs (30) in its last three games than it has in the other seven (16).

♦ Missouri baseball team gets lift against Nebraska-Omaha (Columbia Missourian)

While Jamieson is still trying to determine which three pitchers will start in conference play, he said he thinks it will be senior Eric Anderson, sophomore Rob Zastryzny and junior Blake Holovach.

Still, he said he was impressed with Graves' effort Tuesday.

"We want competition for the weekend starters, and he's a guy that's capable of giving it to the other three guys," Jamieson said.

♦ Missouri's opponent in a 4-game series this coming weekend, the Charlotte 49ers, lost their 4th game of the season Tuesday night to Holy Cross. Charlotte's RPI rank is 240th, compared to Mizzou's 204th (Holy Cross is 44th). Of course, this early in the season the RPI stats are a bit skewed and unreliable due tot the small number of total games played.

♦ Laern a little about the Charlotte 49ers and the 49er players by checking out this Charlotte 49ers Baseball Twitter list.

Sbasen8: Heading to Missouri tomorrow. Got show up in the show me state #SB2012

NOT BASEBALL

I just had to post a link to a couple of great articles, in case you missed them

♦ How Frank Haith won over and rebuilt the Tigers (Kansas City Star)

Eleven months later, Haith has silenced his critics by delivering his finest season as a head coach. Not only that, he has led the Tigers to a No. 5 national ranking and school-record 27 regular-season wins despite a thin bench, undersized frontcourt and scandal in Miami that some thought could derail his tenure in Columbia before it got a chance to start.

Here’s how he did it.

♦ Real-life Davids: How Missouri's wrestling program conquered the Goliaths of the Big 12 (Kansas City Star)

Thanks in part to a handful of Kansas City kids (more on that, later) the Tigers won the Big 12 tournament at the Hearnes Center with 77 points, four more than second-place Oklahoma State.

It was hard to see that coming even a week ago, when Missouri lost to Oklahoma State 32-9.

“Just think of that,” Smith said. “I told them eight days ago about David and Goliath and going through the valley of Elah. I told them the Philistines, and the Goliath is the Big 12 and we had never won it. David walked out there with confidence. You got to believe in all the good things that can happen. I put signs up that said ‘Be my David’. All week, every kid, I went up to, I said ‘Be my David’ and they came up to me at the end and said, Coach, we are your David’s.”

The good time is approaching

"The good time is approaching.

The season is at hand

When the merry click of the two-base lick

Will be heard throughout the land.

The frost still lingers on the earth, and

Budless are the trees,

But the merry ring of the voice of spring

Is borne on every breeze."

The Sporting News, 1886

Opening Day

"The good time is approaching.
The season is at hand
When the merry click of the two-base lick
Will be heard throughout the land.
The frost still lingers on the earth, and
Budless are the trees,
But the merry ring of the voice of spring
Is borne on every breeze."
The Sporting News, 1886

■ Let's take the lid off the sucker is this morning's post at CollegeBaseballToday. Worth a look, even if just for the great picture.

Opening Day Lineup

Game #1 of the 2009 season is underway, and here is the starting lineup:

1. LF Greg Folgia (moving to the outfield after playing 2B in 2008; Folgia is also expected to get more innings as a relief pitcher this season
2. DH Rex Meyr (Double-Zero has looked good at the plate in the Fall and Winter practices)
3. RF Aaron Senne (moving to RF from LF, where he spent most of 2008)
4. C Trevor Coleman (picked by some to be All Big 12)
5. CF Ryan Lollis (spurned a 20th round draft selection to return for his senior year with MU)
6. 3B Kyle Mach (interesting to see him in the 6th slot)
7. 1B Steve Gray (hit a home run off the top of the Devine Pavilion a couple of weeks ago in a practice game)
8. 2B Andrew Thigpen (moving to 2B from his 2008 position at SS)
9. SS Micahel Liberto (the sole newcomer in the lineup, a slick-fielding JuCo transfer)

Kyle Gibson, of course, is the starting pitcher tonight.