HI NOTES: Zagone rising, Mizzou looks to future

Rick Zagone, 2008

MU IN THE MINORS

♦ Zagone shuts down Indians’ bats, Norfolk wins 2-0 (Herald Bulletin)

In his Triple-A debut for Norfolk, left hander Rick Zagone held the Tribe to just three hits and struck out six over six innings while first baseman Joe Mahoney provided the games only scores with a two-run home run as the Tides went on to shut out the Indianapolis Indians 2-0 on Sunday afternoon at Victory Field.

Zagone, who joined Norfolk earlier in the day, turned in a masterful effort, holding the Indians to just five total baserunners to earn the win in his first career Triple-A outing. Norfolk relievers Miguel Gonzalez and Jon Link shut down the Tribe the rest of the way with Gonzalez earning his fifth hold of the season and Link notching his first save.

SEC

♦ MU fans to be asked to help pay the way in $EC (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

To help close the asset gap, Mizzou is laying the groundwork for an approximately $160 million athletics facilities campaign — which was afoot well before the SEC move — to be unveiled in the next few months.

And it's vigorously trumpeting donating to the Tiger Scholarship Fund.
For an athletics department that mandates being self-sustaining, those fundraising movements are crucial.

"To reach our goal of at least getting into the middle of the pack from a resource standpoint in the league, it will be the primary way we can get there," said MU associate athletics director for operations Tim Hickman, who is quarterbacking the SEC transition team.
. . .
Noting the "crazy" truth that Mizzou's most visible "piece of inventory" is not the Columns but its football helmet, Alden called MU's athletics department the university's 'strongest advertising vehicle, bar none."

And to "harness the value" of that in the SEC, he added, MU has to step up in all facets — and one as much as anything else.

"We have to tie our fans to Mizzou," he said, "at an even higher level than we've done in the past."

GAME DAY

♦ Missouri relinquishes lead, drops home series finale with Memphis (The Maneater)

Despite overcoming an early deficit on Sunday at Taylor Stadium, the Missouri baseball team (27-24, 9-12 Big 12 Conference) could not hold on to its lead against Memphis in the series finale and lost 8-7, dropping the final home set of the season.

♦ Mizzou Baseball Links (RockMNation)

Tough weekend for Team Jamieson. The offense showed up, but the pitching struggled. Still, Rock Bridge grad John Miles looked awfully good on Saturday, and it is awfully easy to get excited about this pitching staff in coming years.