HI NOTES: Tigers and Horns split, go for the final victory

SUNDAY


Today is the final match-up between the Longhorns and Tigers in any sport in Columbia.  Let's send them to the meat packer.


SATURDAY

♦ Comments from HornFans.com Message Board:

• NBHorn7: We have tried all kinds of line up changes and pitching rotations, but Augie can't sprinkle magic pixie dust on them and make them more talented.
  
• GAS Horn: We are a kinda average team, and we lose to kinda average teams.
  
• petscii: And with that, unless my math is wrong. Baylor is your regular season BIg 12 2012 conference champion.

♦ Missouri baseball evens series against Texas with late-inning victory (Columbia Missourian)

Jamieson has used four different players at the top of the batting order throughout the year, and none of them have found lasting success there.

On Saturday, the duty fell to Eric Garcia for the first time this season.

"It was a bit of a surprise," Garcia said. "I kind of looked up there, looking through the four through nine spots, and couldn't find my name. I looked up, and I was like, 'oh crap, I'm hitting leadoff.'"

♦ Missouri keeps hopes alive with victory over Texas (The Maneater)

The top of the second and bottom of the fourth were the only times no runs were scored. The two teams entered the bottom of fifth inning knotted at four runs apiece.
From there, though, the game rapidly morphed into a pitching duel between bullpens, as Missouri freshman Ryan Yuengel and Texas’ Nathan Thornhill duked it out, holding both offenses at bay and turning the game into a grinder.
“Hats off to our pitchers. They kept us in that ballgame,” junior left fielder Scott Sommerfeld said. “I think that was the key. We just kept battling and we didn’t give up, and it proved itself in the eighth inning.”
Coach Tim Jamieson said he didn’t plan to use Yuengel as much as he did, hoping his starter, senior Jeff Emens, would go longer. Still, he said he was impressed with the freshman.
“He’s starting to grow up,” Jamieson said. “(He’s) starting to pitch more like a sophomore.”

♦ Garcia hit lifts U to win (Columbia Tribune)

"We don't have anyone who's comfortable being the leadoff guy," Jamieson said. "That's more of a mind thing than anything else. … The way we swung the bats the last five or six games we've got a bunch of eight- or nine-hole hitters."

Jamieson moved second baseman Dillon Everett from ninth to second in the lineup, a switch that paid off immediately. In the first inning, Everett reached on first baseman Alex Silver's fielding error and later scored on Andreas Plackis' two-run double. Everett reached base four times four different ways.

Texas answered the two early runs, but Sommerfeld broke a 2-2 tie with a first-pitch solo shot off Peters, his first homer of the season and second of his career.

"It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders," the junior left fielder said. "I've had some of the guys giving me a hard time about not hitting any home runs."

FRIDAY

♦ Texas holds on against Missouri (KVUE)

Missouri began to chip away at the Longhorns’ lead in the home half of the fifth. Andreas Plackis hit a wall-banger to left centerfield to start the frame for the Tigers’ first hit of the game. With one out, Case Munson drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Parker French exited with an apparent elbow injury and was relieve by Hoby Milner. Milner was called for a balk, allowing Plackis to score. Milner got out of the frame without further damage done and the Horns led 5-1 after five complete innings.

♦ Progress with no payoff (Columbia Tribune)

"I feel a lot better tonight than I did last Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday," MU Coach Tim Jamieson said, referring to losses at Texas Tech and Arkansas. "I felt like we competed. I thought we did some good things tonight, which, after that Friday night at Tech, we hadn't done much. So it's something to build on."

Eric Garcia had two hits and a run and Andreas Plackis tripled and scored for the Tigers, who rallied from a five-run deficit.

♦ Missouri baseball loses to Texas after rally falls short (Columbia Missourian)

Missouri's four runs came as a result of three hits and several Texas mistakes. Coach Tim Jamieson said that, with Brown at the plate, he was hoping for a big hit that might turn the tide of the game.

"He could also give us the lead in that situation," Jamieson said. "He probably overswung a bit at the 3-0 pitch, but he's still got two more strikes. He's a guy that you want to let him swing the bat, and he's capable of doing something good. He's also capable of swinging and missing."

♦ Missouri falls short in home series opener to Texas (The Maneater)

“The thing we did tonight that we haven’t been doing is … we scored our four runs on three hits, and we executed and we moved guys over,” he said. “We put guys at third base with less than two outs and the guys knocked them in, and we haven’t been doing that.”

Sophomore lefty Rob Zastryzny started for Missouri and, despite surrendering five earned runs, was able to eat up 7 2/3 innings and give the Tigers’ bullpen a rest.

“That was my goal, when they put me out Friday after (junior ace) Eric (Anderson) went down, was to keep us in games and go late into games,” Zastryzny said. “I feel like I went long enough, it’s just I didn’t give solid innings the whole way through.”

MU IN THE MINORS

♦ TinCaps work extra to grab victory News-Sentinel)

In the ninth Matt Stites (1-0) emerged for his first of three perfect frames. In nine appearances this year, Stites has allowed just three hits, no runs, no walks and struck out 15.