Missouri Baseball in the Majors: Strikeout Kings

♦ Tigers' Verlander, Scherzer could make strikeout history (USA Today)

Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer could become the best single-season strikeout duo in Detroit Tigers history.

Verlander and Scherzer rank first and second in the American League in strikeouts. If each maintains his current pace, they could strike out at least 240 apiece.

According to research done through Baseball-Reference.com, the Tigers have never had two pitchers fan at least 240 hitters in the same season. . .

WORD ON THE TWEET

Bernie Miklasz: Shout-out to Detroit's @Max_Scherzer Last 16 starts is 10-3 with 3.64 ERA and K rate of 11.8. Leads majors with 178 Ks

HI NOTES: Big 9, Records, Auburn Awaits, High Noon

WORD ON THE TWEET

@KendallRogersPG:  The #Big12 has already released its 2013 conf schedule. #WVU opens league at #Kstate, #TCU opens league hosting #Kansas.

@GavinStark30:  To all the people who watched me push my car off stadium today in traffic. You suck. 

@FredKatz:  @philanthropy27 Prediction for the series at Auburn? 

@philanthropy27 (Phil McCormick):   @FredKatz I think the tigers will take the series to be honest. I've seen a few practices and the pitching is much more solid than last year 

@BGSmooth07 (Brett Graves): After this test.. its time for auburn!

BIG 12 9

♦ 2012 Big 12 Baseball Weekly Release for Feb. 14 (Big12Sports.com)

Big 12 Career Watch/Active Statistical Leaders list includes: 

• APPEARANCES: Jeff Emens has 71, just 34 away from 10th ranked Huston Street (UT) 

• INNINGS PITCHED: Jeff Emens, 111.1, quite a bit away from TJ Walz's (KU)328.1 

• WALKS: Blake Brown (59), Eric Garcia (53)are 50+ behind Adam Muenster (NU) at 122.

♦ Big 12 Coaches Preseason Teleconference AUDIO archive

QUOTE

“You say to yourself, ‘Why is it that baseball attracts so many people, as opposed to other sports?’ The reason is simple, if you’ve ever watched High Noon with Gary Cooper. Here he is, standing alone in the street. The odds are against him, and he comes out to be the hero. There’s a similarity in baseball. It’s the only game where it’s only you that can win. You’re up there alone. And there are nine other gunmen out in the field to get you. And you’re Gary Cooper.” 

Marshall Fogel, baseball fan, as quoted by David Cataneo in Hornsby Hit One Over My Head

Mizzou Baesball: Three days of almost

Sunday, TT 16, MU 15

■ Missouri infielder breaks hits record in Missouri baseball team's loss (Columbia Missourian)

In the second inning, Senne recorded his second base hit of the game. It was Senne's 275th career hit, making Senne the all-time hits leader at Missouri. Senne surpassed Jayce Tingler, who played with the Tigers from 2000-2003.

Senne and the Tigers offense clicked all day, but the pitching staff struggled. Every time the Tigers got a run, the Red Raiders responded.

■ Tech guts out win in rubber game against Mizzou (Daily Toreador)

Texas Tech coach Dan Spencer and the Texas Tech baseball team were out of pitchers by the end of Sunday’s wild, four-hour 16-15 win.
With Tech closer Chad Bettis throwing extensively in the series’ first two games and Tech using five other relievers by the eighth inning Sunday, the Red Raiders were so desperate that they threw catcher Jeremy Mayo on the mound.
Mayo, who had not pitched in a serious game since high school, wasn’t half-bad on the other side of the plate, allowing two hits, a walk and striking out one in 1 2/3 innings.

Saturday, TT 5, MU 4

■ Outfielder makes game close, but Missouri baseball team still loses (Columbia Missourian)

Gebhart has hit in all seven games he has played in since returning and has put a stop to left field being a position that coach Tim Jamieson frequently platoons.

His return has also helped Missouri in its quest to make an eighth-straight regional tournament. With only 10 conference games left this season, the Tigers need to put together a hot streak to make this happen.

■ Doran fans fifteen, lifts Red Raiders to much needed win (RedRaiders.com)

To have any chance at its fifth straight series win, Texas Tech needed a career outing from starter Bobby Doran.

Doran gave the Red Raiders even more.

The junior right-hander from Flower Mound tossed 81/3 stellar innings, striking out a career-high 16 batters, and Tech held off a furious rally at the end off closer Chad Bettis for a 5-4 victory against Missouri on Saturday at Dan Law Field, evening the Big 12 Conference series at one win apiece.

■ MU baseball team loses to Texas Tech (TigerExtra.com)

The Tigers didn’t go quietly, though. They loaded the bases and pushed across two runs on Ryan Gebhart’s single to cut the deficit to one. But Red Raiders closer Chad Bettis got Senne to ground out to end the game.

Nick Tepesch suffered his first loss in three starts after allowing five runs on 10 hits in 61/3 innings. It was his shortest outing in Big 12 play this season.

Friday, MU 12, TT 8

■ Missouri gets to Bettis in 11th inning, takes opener (Lubbock Online)

"Whoever won that game was going to be in a lot better shape, because we used our closer about the same amount of pitches," Missouri head coach Tim Jamieson said. "I think everyone in the ballpark thought the game was over (in the 10th) and probably some of the guys on our bench thought it was over as well. But then we ended up getting out of it and started believing again. We did a great job getting out of one inning and setting up another against a good pitcher."

Game Day: MU 28, UA-PB 2

■ For details on MU's highest-scoring games in history, revisit Record-breaking night for the Tigers, April 12, 2008

The record for most runs scored by MU in a game is 35, in a 35-2 game against
William Jewell in 1902.

■ Tigers rush to Scardino's defense (Columbia Tribune)

89.5 percent of his outs are recorded by the Tigers position players.

“Definitely exciting,” senior first baseman Aaron Senne said of playing behind Scardino, “because you know you’re going to get a lot of action.”

Mizzou Baseball Quotes & Notes: By the Numbers

■ Senne moves through history, leads baseball to solid weekend series (mutv23sports.com)

After a four-run start for Boston College, marked by a three-run homerun from John Spatola, the Tigers evened the score in the second inning, with Michael Liberto earning two RBI in the first and Aaron Senne hitting his 30th career homerun in the second, moving him into the sole 9th spot. His next two homeruns will move him into a tie for eighth all-time

.

■ Two-week Mizzou baseball offense leaders (KMOV.com)

An average wOBA [weighted on-base average] in the majors is about .330. In college, the average is going to be higher because the quality of pitching a batter faces is worse. Currently, the average for the Big 12 is around .380.

Now that the explanations are out of the way, here's a look at where Missouri batters stand in the league's top 64 wOBAs:

6. Mike Liberto, .540
11. Aaron Senne, .483
37. Brett Nicholas, .368
46. Jonah Schmidt, .330
49. Blake Brown, .329
61. Conner Mach, .215

Record-breaking night for the Tigers

On a windy and cool Friday night, a crowd of over 1,200 fans showed up at Simmons Field, drawn by the coverage and speculation about a possible historic record-breaking game. The energy and expectation in the crowd was apparent even before the first pitch. No one was really very sure how many innings it would take for Aaron Crow to set a new all-time national record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched (since no one really knows what the record is for sure), but they all wanted to be there to witness the event when it happened.

Just a few short minutes into the 1st inning, the anticipation crashed to earth as Aaron Crow showed that even Superman has his kryptonite. The excitement shifted from the crowd to the Longhorn dugout as the Texas players, obviously fully aware of the scoreless streak, celebrated at a level not usual for merely scoring the first run of a ballgame.

And by the time the Longjohned Longhorns had finished their seconf inning at bat, our Tigers were down 8-0. I saw a small number of faithless fans head for the exits at that point. Boy were they stupid.

MU answered back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 2nd, Texas added a 9th run in the 3rd, and then the slumping Mizzou offense woke up like an angry man whose home had been invaded.

10 runs in the bottom of the 3rd was the first explosion, followed by more runs as the game went along, piling up to a final tally of 31 runs, against the Longhorns' total of 12.

The 10-run inning was the biggest inning for the Tigers since an 11-run second inning against Mississippi Valley State on May 6, 2006

Jacob Priday (aka The Incredible Hulk), led the attack with his own record-breaking performance.


Priday was 5-for-5 on the night. He set the single-game school record with four home runs, nine RBI and six runs scored. The four home runs is the most ever in the Big 12 Conference and is tied for third most in NCAA history.

With the four homers, Priday moves within one of the Missouri school record with 44 for his career. The nine RBI give him 218, which is four shy of the Mizzou career mark.

Every Tiger in the starting lineup had at least one hit and five had at least three. The 26 hits for Missouri tied a school record, which was set in 2005 against Navy.

The 31 runs are the most scored by the Tigers since they defeated Truman State 30-0 in 2003. It is the most runs scored by MU against a conference opponent since a 27-4 win over Nebraska in 1956. The all-time MU record for runs scored in a single game is 35, set in 1904.

The loss is the worst for Texas since a 25-6 defeat against Texas A&M in 1995. Friday was the first game in which Texas allowed at least 20 runs since 1998.

The 31 runs is the most ever allowed by any Texas baseball team in their ilustrious history.

But hey, they got to celebrate that first run they scored.

Oh, and the winning pitcher in the game?

Aaron Crow.


Records:

Jacob Priday
4 home runs
(previous record:3)
9 RBI (8)
6 Runs scored (tie)
18 Total Bases (13)

Team Records
26 Hits (tie)
65 Total Bases (45)
28 RBI (27)


Top run-scoring games by the Missouri Tigers against conference opponents

BIG 12

2003
MU vs. Baylor
23-18

BIG 8

1977
MU vs. Iowa State
23-5

BIG 7

1963
MU vs. Colorado
21-7

1958
MU vs. Kansas
25-14
MU vs. Kansas State
24-2

1956
MU vs. Nebraska
27-4

1953
MU vs. Kansas State
25-3

1948
MU vs. Iowa State
22-6

The record for most runs scored by MU in a game is 35, in a 35-2 game against William Jewell in 1902.

The 2008 MU Media Guide shows it as being a record set in 1904, but the Year-by-Year detailed records show that game in 1902.

Here in the MU Baseball History pages of SimmonsField.com we have a feature on the 1902 season. In doing that research, we found no record in the Columbia Daily Tribune archives of a 35-run game against William Jewell.

But I'm sure it happened some time.

Stewart Pitches No-Hitter vs. Arkansas

Razorbacks Lose Opener By 2-0 Count
(Columbia Daily Tribune, Saturday April 14, 1956)

Norm Stewart

Norm Stewart, who had started three games and wearied off the mound in each before it was over, went the route for the first time yesterday - and chalked up a no-hitter for himself in Missouri's 2-0 victory over Arkansas in the first game of a two-game series with the Razorbacks. Wade LaDue, erstwhile reliefer [sic], was scheduled to start against the visitors in the second game of the series this afternoon.

If Stewart was getting tired against Arkansas yesterday, he didn't show any signs of it in the late innings. With a no-hit game in sight he bore down hard in the last two frames. He struck out three in the eighth and another in the ninth, with the other two final inning outs on infield balls.

Only four Arkansas players reached first in the game. Stewart struck out 10 and walked only three. It was a masterful performance to add to the honors he won earlier in the year as he set new individual scoring records in virtually every department in varsity basketball.

Stewart's three previous starts were against Oklahoma A. & M., Tulsa U., and Washington U. LaDue was his relief in all three games. LaDue got credit for the victories over the Oklahoma teams and Stewart was the winner against the Bears. Yesterday, with Stewart never looking like he might get into trouble, it was no game for relief action.

Stewart also led the attack. He singled in the third, advanced on a sacrifice and a passed ball, and then scored when Arkansas' Everett Thomas walked three men in a row. Jay Hankins, one of those walked, scored on a bad throw to first by Joe Kretschmer, Arkansas shortstop from Jefferson City.

MU All-Time No-Hitters

Norm Stewart
4/13/1956
vs. Arkansas

Ernie Nevers-Don Miller-Ralph Schultz
4/10/1957
vs. Washington (Mo)

Larry Bohannon
4/7/1962
vs. Iowa State

Dennis Musgraves
4/25/1964
vs. Kansas State

Steve Shockey
4/19/1977
vs. Saint Louis

Craig Fitzpatrick
3/8/1980
vs. Purdue

Dave Spreckles-Bob Baker
3/15/1981
vs. Iowa

Jim Maddock
5.3.1981
vs. Nebraska

Max Scherzer-Michael Cole
4/1/2005
vs. Texas Tech

Bryce Montes De Oca-Giovanni Lopez-Nolan Gromacki
3/2/2018
vs. Univerity of Maryland - Baltimore County

One Game at a Time: MU's Winning Streaks

At the time of this writing, the 2003 Missouri Tigers have just extended their winning streak to 13 by defeating the Nebrska Cornhuskers 4-3 in game 1 of a 3-game series in Lincoln.

The last time the Tigers had a 13-game winning streak was in 1988. That team, under Gene McArtor, rang up consecutive wins against Lamar (3), St. Louis U, NW Missouri State (2), UM-StL (2), SIU-Edwardsville (2) and Kansas. The streak was broken by a 3-2 loss to the Jayhawks. The '88 Tigers finished 42-22 for the season and made a trip to the NCAA South Regional.

In 1985, Missouri began the season with a 14-game winning streak. This streak is a little less impressive, given the caliber of many of their opponents during the stretch: Evangel (2), William Jewell (2), NE Missouri State (6), UM-StL (2), New Mexico, Utah. Utah beat MU in the second game of their series, 4-3,stopping the streak. The Tigers finished 36-27 that season and did not go on to the NCAA Regionals.

The 1981 Tigers rolled out a 16-game winning streak on their way to a 43-18 record and a visit to the NCAA South Regional. Gene McArtor's squad pulled out consecutive wins against Iowa (2), Westminster (2), NE Missouri State (2), Northwestern, Texas Pan-American, Seton Hall, Morningside, Northwestern again, Michigan State, and 4-straight against the Kansas Jayhawks. SIU Edwardsville knocked off the Tigers 11-7, ending the streak.

But the champion of all Mizzou winning streaks came in 1964, a banner year for the Tigers. John "Hi" Simmons took his '64 team all the way to the championship game of the College World Series before losing the final game to Minnesota. The 18-game streak is all the more impressive considering the relative shortness of a college baseball season in those days. MU's final record was 26-5-1. After beginning the season with one win followed by three losses, the Tigers went on to defeat Tulsa (2), Colorado (2), Iowa State, Kansas State (3), Oklahoma (3), Oklahoma State, Nebraska (3), and Kansas (3). The last game of the streak was the last game of the regular season. In the District V playoffs, Missouri tied St. Louis U by a 1-1 score before coming back to defeat them, 2-1.

Prior to 1964, most seasons were too short to provide the possibility of such long winning streaks. In Missouri's National Championship season of 1954, the entire season from opening day to the championship win over tiny Rollins College (4-1) encompassed only 26 games (and a 22-4 record).