Game Day: Missouri State @ Missouri

Since the Tigers defeated Missouri State two weeks ago:

Word on the Tweet: @bmweiss18:
Hey @MUTigerBaseball fans:
Missouri State got about 2,000 for the
midweek game in Springfield.
Let's beat their attendance
Wednesday night!

♦ The Bears went 5-3

• Won 2-of-3 from Southern Illinois, 1-0, 3-8, 12-6
• Beat Air Force twice, 7-0, 11-3
• Beat Kansas, 6-3
• The Bears have not played a mid-week game

♦ The Tigers went 5-4

• Lost 2 of 3 to Texas Tech
• Lost 2 to Arkansas
• Won 2-of-3 vs. Texas

♦ 4,741 Missouri fans came out to see the Tigers and the Longhorns this past weekend.

♦ Having lost one of their premier weekend pitchers, Clay Murphy, back on April 16th, Missouri State doesn't have a lot of choices on who to start against MU.  Their three weekend starters are needed for their conference series this weekend against Evansville in a tight race for the MVC lead.  The only other pitcher with starting experience this season is Jake Powers, who started the MU game two weeks ago, and who has the highest ERA on the MSU staff.

Weather Forecast
70 / 0% rain

♦ Missouri State was at 36th on the BoydsWorld.com RPI rankings two weeks ago, and they are still at 36th.  Missouri has risen from 96th to 91st.

♦ The Bears'  Kevin Medrano and Nick Petree were tabbed State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Player and Pitcher of the Week.

♦ The Tigers' John Miles was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week

Miles put together one of his best weeks as a Tiger and had a career-best outing in his first-ever start at No. 18 Arkansas on Wednesday. For the week, the Columbia native and Rock Bridge High School graduate posted a 1.17 ERA over 7.2 innings against a pair of ranked opponents (Arkansas and Texas) while striking out six batters. Last Wednesday, he made his first career start at No. 18 Arkansas and went a career-best 4.0 innings while not allowing a run and striking out five Razorbacks against just one walk. He then came back over the weekend to pitch against No. 25 Texas and went 3.2 innings, allowing just on earned run and just three hits.

♦ Mizzou’s key hitters, others, in hitting slump (KBIA Sports Extra)

“Those three are key, but we have multiple guys struggling right now,” Jamieson said. “You can overcome one, maybe two guys struggling, but we have four, five and six struggling at the same time.” Below are hitting statistics for Brown, Mach, and Garcia through Sunday, May 6.

Check out the chart HERE

MU IN THE MINORS

♦ Check out the story of former Tiger Brett Nicholas' trip to Washington, D.C., at  “Barack Wasn’t Near So I Couldn’t Say Hi” (joelmlblogs.com)