Mizzou Links for Friday, May 3
Greetings, diamond sports enthusiasts! Both of our teams will facing the team from Columbia (L)East this weekend. Baseball will be at home — we are focusing on them here — and softball will be there (more on that later on today from me & Brandon).
Per MUTIgers.com, Mizzou will recognize the 70th anniversary of its 1954 NCAA College World Series championship prior to Saturday’s game as part of Alumni Weekend at Taylor Stadium.
But first, congrats, diamond sports grads! We’re proud of you!!!! For reference, their ceremony was held in the Columns Club, I think, so that’s why they’re at Faurot.
Our Graduates #OwnIt #MIZ pic.twitter.com/T0GWAjX5AJ
— Mizzou Softball (@MizzouSoftball) May 2, 2024
Congrats to our graduates # | ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/n0vNZTd0yz
— Mizzou Baseball (@MizzouBaseball) May 2, 2024
Kortay’s got a lot of school stuff to finish up on as he gets ready for graduation, so rather than have him spend a bunch of time on a preview piece, I thought I’d have him provide some ‘Five Things to Watch For” as the Missouri Tigers (20-26, 6-15 SEC) continues its home stand this weekend against the #15 South Carolina Gamecocks (30-14, 11-10 SEC). It’s also Alumni Weekend at Simmons Field!
- Mizzou needs at least one win this weekend to keep up in the chase to Hoover. The Tigers are a game back LSU and Ole Miss, but a winless weekend could put them too far behind the 8 ball with only six games left after this weekend including three in Starkville against Mississippi State. The good news for Mizzou is it has won at least one game in each of its home SEC series this season. Ole Miss visits last-place Auburn, and LSU hosts No. 1 Texas A&M this weekend.
- Could South Carolina be in for a hangover? The Gamecocks picked off a series win against then-No. 4 Kentucky last weekend, and last time they won a series against a top-five opponent (Vandy) they dropped their following series.
- If you tune in, please appreciate Ethan Petry’s greatness. The South Carolina true sophomore will be taken early in the 2025 draft, and what he’s done in his almost two years of college baseball has been incredible. He might not be on the Cags/Condon level, but just know that the Tigers are facing a future big-leaguer this weekend.
- Will Missouri’s bats finally wake up? The Tigers are on a four-game SEC losing streak, and they haven’t scored more than two runs in any of those four games. Mizzou did score 13 in the midweek against Lindenwood, but that’s certainly not SEC-level pitching. If the Tigers can score six or seven in a game this weekend, they may just be able to steal one this weekend.
- Can Lovich translate his four hits from the Tennessee series to this week? The Mizzou star has struggled mightily in conference play, slashing just .167/.242/.233 in SEC play and going just 1-18 in the Georgia and LSU series. However, last weekend against Tennessee, Lovich went 4-for-12 with a double and RBI. If the Mizzou bats are going to wake up like I mentioned above, he’ll certainly need to be a part of the effort.
Probable Pitchers:
FRIDAY: Roman Kimball (SCar) v. Logan Lunceford
SATURDAY: Elin Jones (SCar) v. Javyn Pimental
SUNDAY: TBD (maybe Tyler Pitzer?) vs. TBD (maybe Carter Rustad or Ian Lohse?)
How to Watch:
WHEN: Friday, May 3 @ 6pm | Saturday, May 4 @ 3pm | Sunday, May 5 @ 1pm
WHERE: Taylor Stadium | Columbia, Mo.
TV/STREAMING: SEC Network +
Fun Facts:
- HISTORY: Friday will mark the 34th meeting between the two Columbia teams, with SCar holding a 20-13 lead. Mizzou has been lights out at home vs. the Gamecocks, though, and have a 10-5 record, including 8 of the last 10. Last year, in the Other Columbia, the Tigers were swept.
- LAST TIME OUT: The Tigers mauled the Lions of Lindenwood in their final mid-weeker of the season on Wednesday in a run-rule 13-1 victory— I was there! 10 different Tigers logged a hit.
- Catcher Mateo Serna is hitting .381 (8-for-21) with two homers and seven RBIs over the Tigers’ last 10 games.
- First baseman Danny Corona is on a five-game hitting streak. In the streak, he has three multi-hit games.
- Per MUTigers.com, LHP Javyn Pimental has allowed just four earned runs on 16 hits while fanning 28 hitters over 26.0 innings (six appearances) at Taylor Stadium this season.
- The Tigers are batting .288 and average 8.3 runs per game at Taylor Stadium.
Busy home stand ahead, with Alumni Weekend coming to Taylor Stadium for #Mizzou‘s series with South Carolina⤵️
️ | https://t.co/5f3krlNzFn# | ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/xUBeh6E8En
— Mizzou Baseball (@MizzouBaseball) May 1, 2024
ON TO THE LINKS!
️ Lindenwood victory recap# | ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/NGojCvxqVH
— Mizzou Baseball (@MizzouBaseball) May 2, 2024
Yesterday at Rock M
- Dan writes, How Mizzou rebuilt their offensive line with Brandon Jones’ coaching and Eli Drinkwitz’s recruiting
- IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Tobias Ten: Softball Senior Weekend | My farewell, reflection and gratitude from my years at Rock M from Parker | Where can Mizzou Hoops find a center? from Sam
More Links:
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read Eli’s live subscriber chat | Mizzou admin expects athletics department to operate close to black, require financial support (Eli Hoff) | Mizzou adds young defensive lineman, linebacker out of transfer portal (Hoff) | IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: With transfer portal winding down, how will Mizzou men’s hoops handle its center situation? (Hoff, 4/30) | Hochman: Five-star. McDonald’s. Duke. ‘I can be better,’ said Mark Mitchell, now at Mizzou (4/30)
- D1 Softball / The Maneater: “Oh Captain! My Captain!” Laurin Krings’ ascension to the ace of Missouri softball (Dylan Heinrich)
- Ten Essentials with Mizzou VB’s Kimani Johnson
Ten Essentials with Kimani Johnson #MIZ pic.twitter.com/dvLItlfp1o
— Mizzou Volleyball (@MizzouVB) May 2, 2024
- KC Star: Former Missouri Tigers are finding homes as undrafted free agents after NFL Draft (Maddie Hartley)
- Columbia Missourian: Mizzou softball looks to build momentum in final regular-season series (Peter Metanchuk) | Mizzou baseball’s road to Hoover begins in Columbia (Seth Schwartzberg)
- The Athletic: A new Carolina Panthers’ fan favorite, Harrison Mevis — the ‘Thiccer Kicker’ has leg to compete (Joseph Person) | Ranking the 49ers’ undrafted rookies, who are led by hard-charging Cody Schrader (Matt Barrows)
- KOMU 8: VIDEO: From gridiron to green fields: former Mizzou football player tackles farming and politics (Chelsi Peters)
- Yahoo! Sports: SOURCES: New college athlete compensation model may cost power schools $300M each over 10 years (Ross Dellenger)
Per @YahooSports sources, new details on a college model that may cost power schools $300M each over 10 yrs:
-Scholarship expansion & new roster limits
-$17-22M rev-share cap
-$2.9B~ damages tab
-Deadline: ~40 days
-Implementation no sooner than fall 2025https://t.co/Hmv6SwayFQ— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 3, 2024
- PowerMizzou: Four Down Territory (Jarod Hamilton) | An early look at potential Missouri 2025 NFL Draft prospects (Hamilton) | Recapping Aaron Rowe’s weekend at Nike EYBL Session 1 (Drew King)
@a_rowe_3 ➡️ @amarebynumm pic.twitter.com/qfFyp4hbV0
— MOKAN Basketball (@MokanBasketball) April 29, 2024
- This is fun!
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