Mizzou Baseball

Went to my first Mizzou baseball game of the season this afternoon. Mizzou opened the season as the number 5 team in the country and we had played like it during the two tournaments that we played in (one in Florida and one in California) to open the season.

We won 9-8 today on a walkoff triple in the bottom of the ninth. It was a really good game as it started slow (1-0 after five innings) and then got exciting for the last four innings. We started our third best starter and he allowed only an unearned run in 6 innings. Our hitting busted the crap out of the ball all afternoon and we played some really impressive defense. I'd say that Mizzou has a chance to win the national title, but the bullpen is going to have to improve drastically. We went through three pitchers in the seventh inning, when Indiana State scored five runs on only four hits. Each of the three pitchers walked a batter and none of them could consistently could throw strikes.

With three starters like Crow, Gibson and Berger and an offense that can really smoke the ball, this is a team that is certainly capable of contending and winning a national title (which would be sweet). But the bullpen needs to throw strikes and attack hitters. The team also needs to be smarter on the bases. We had a couple of botched stolen base attempts and had a guy thrown out stretching a single and one gunned down after he overran third.