Mizzou Baseball Quotes & Notes

■ Opel has made a quick impact at Mizzou (bnd.com)

After winning News-Democrat Co-Player of the Year honors last spring following a dominant senior season at Edwardsville High School, freshman outfielder Dane Opel is off to a solid start at the University of Missouri.

■ Court, board decide to retire nickname (ESPN.com)
A state Supreme Court ruling and a Board of Higher Education decision have retired for good the University of North Dakota's Fighting Sioux nickname after a four-year legal battle.

The court ruled Thursday that the board had the authority to dump the nickname at any time. The court rejected an appeal that sought to delay action.
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MU in the Minors

■ Northwest Arkansas Naturals nearly blank the San Antonio Missions, 5-1 (MLNtherawfeed.com)

Naturals left-hander Everett Teaford must have missed the memo. With Aaron Crow (05-07), the Kansas City Royals’ 2009 first-round selection taking the mound for his first professional regular season start, Teaford stole the show, no-hitting the San Antonio Missions for 4 1/3 innings in relief of Crow en route to a 5-1 victory for Northwest Arkansas on Opening Night at Arvest Ballpark.

That isn’t to say Crow pitched badly. He did not, allowing just one unearned run in 4 2/3 innings of work before reaching his prescribed pitch count of 80 pitches and falling one out shy of the five innings required to earn a victory. Crow fanned two, walked three, and allowed four hits.
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All of the offense was charged to Nathan Culp (04-06), the Missions’ starter, who was tagged with five runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings of work. He walked three and struck out two. Four relievers no-hit the Naturals’ lineup the rest of the way.

■ Minor League Opening Night (Star Tribune.com)

Ft. Myers 3, Bradenton 18 – Kyle Gibson (07-09) made the Opening Night start for the Miracle, and got hit around a little bit. The Twins top pick in the 2009 draft gave up five runs (3 earned) on six hits (2 home runs) and two walks in just 3.2 innings. He struck out seven.

■ Twin Minor League Weekly (blogtalkradio.com)

Audio discussion of the Twins' minor leagues, includes an interview with Kyle Gibson that begins at about 14:45