Olympic Sports Catch Up: Rory’s Version pt. 4

It’s time to consider Mizzou a golf school.

Learning from the best, Karen Steger, of course, welcome to my very own edition of an Olympic Sports Catch Up!

As Karen always says…”I’ve broken down each of the sports below and will be sharing recent results, fun/relevant info, upcoming matches, and any writing our talented crew has done. If there’s relevant social media posts or MU Tigers news, I’ll share that as well.”

Because I cover golf and tennis currently, and because I am a Major League Baseball enthusiast, I will focus on those sports specifically.

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Women’s Golf

• As I said in the last update, “Week after week, the team continues to excel.”
• The team just finished THIRD of 11 teams at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic
• The Tigers finished above conference foes #48 Alabama and #34 Oklahoma
• Four Tigers finished in the top-25
• Melanie Walker recorded her best finish of the year with a sixth place finish. Also her second top-10 placement of the season
• Ffion Tynan sealed her eighth consecutive top-15 finish of the season
• Tynan and Jade Zamora finished in a tie at 11th
• Alexandra Berglund rounded out the group in 25th place
• Mizzou now has four top-50 wins in the last two tournaments

• Next Up: It’s postseason golf time!! The Tigers will trek to Belleair, Florida for the SEC Championships starting on April 14.

Men’s Golf

• THE TIGER MEN WON ITS FIRST TOURNAMENT OF THE SEASON!
• Defending home turf, the team found success at the Tiger Intercollegiate.
• The Tigers finished at an even par and eight strokes ahead of second place Saint Mary’s.
• It is also their first outright tittle since winning the 2022 Turning Stone Tiger Intercollegiate.
• Individually, Mattias Varjun finished at the top of the field as well.
• It was his first collegiate victory in his 42nd career tournament.
• The performance also earned him SEC Golfer of the Week.
• According to MUTigers, Varjun walked away proud of both the individual and group performance.

“Obviously winning today was huge and getting it done in front of the home crowd makes it extra special,” Varjun said. “We play and practice here every day but when you get a tournament here it has a different feeling. We only get a couple of rounds to perform and show and the fact that we were able to do it speaks volumes about our team.”

• Overall, four members were in the top 10
• After a strong outing last week, Trent Mierl finished third overall this week. It matched his career best.
• Veikka Viskari finished in fifth. It was his second top-five outing of the season.
• Bubba Chapman secured eighth overall, which was also his best career outing.
• Per MUTigers, head coach Glen Millican was thrilled with the team.

“It was a great win all the way around,” said Millican. “It was very rewarding to see the guys win as a team and Mattias as an individual. It felt like our team picked up a lot of momentum from the final round at Myrtle Beach. We played well there, took another step forward last week at Charleston, played really well and got into contention with nine to go. Then we took another step forward from that and obviously winning at home is great, but winning in a dominating fashion has got to make the guys feel really good about the progress they have made and the work they put in.”

• Next Up: The Tigers will be back on the green on April 14 in the Mossy Oak Collegiate hosted by Mississippi State.

Tennis

• The Tigers moved slightly down in the rankings, but still held on to an impressive number.

• This past week the Tigers faced two strong conference opponents in #18 South Carolina and #1 Georgia.
• Against the Gamecocks, the Tigers were swept 4-0 but still played well.
• In singles, the team faced three nationally ranked players.
• Freshman Zoe Lazar even won a set against #97 Misa Malkin before the match went unfinished.
• Another Freshman Gian Octa also won her first set before the match went unfinished as well.
• The Tigers were also swept by Georgia as well.
• Facing the top team in the nation, the women faced four nationally ranked players in singles.
• Mary Brumfield faced the top player in the nation, Dasha Vidamova, and put up a strong fight but fell 6-2 and 6-3.
• According to MUTigers, head Coach Biance Turati was still proud of the team despite the results.

“This was not the easiest weekend for the team and we had two very tough matches. South Carolina is ranked #18 and Georgia is the top team in the country. We fought and competed hard in both matches. In Columbia, the weather was very hot and humid, and our opponents could handle the conditions better than we did. Against Georgia today, I am proud of the level we showed on some of the courts, especially in singles, because we created and had opportunities against the best team around at the moment. We are all excited for next weekend because Senior Day is coming up soon!”

• Next Up: Mizzou returns back to Columbia to welcome #6 Tennessee on April 11. On Sunday, April 13, the Tigers will then host a doubleheader against #46 Kentucky and Lindenwood.

Baseball

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL HAS STARTED!!

With the season now here, it’s time for me to nerd out for a second.

Perhaps my new favorite addition of the Olympic Sports Update: “Rory nerds out of over baseball”

Let’s check in on the four alums around the league!

Pete Fairbanks (Tampa Bay Rays): The relief pitcher opened the season strong, securing a win and a save, sporting a 0.00 ERA. Through three appearances in April, Fairbanks added another save while also collecting his first loss of the season. His ERA now sits at 3.00.

Kameron Misner (Tampa Bay Rays): Through 26 at-bats this season, Misner is hitting .385 with a home run and six RBI’s, maintaining success at the plate since Opening Day.

Tanner Houck (Boston Red Sox): While having a loss attached to his name, Houck has appeared in three games as a starter this season with 16.1 innings pitched and 10 strikeouts. In his start on April 9 against the Toronto Blue Jays, the pitcher threw 6.2 innings only allowing one run, allowing two BB and striking out two. The Red Sox lost the game in 11 innings by a score of 2-1, but Houck was not credited with the loss.

Max Scherzer (Toronto Blue Jays): Scherzer has only appeared in one game this season, which was the third game of the season against the Baltimore Orioles. Over three innings, the starter allowed three hits, two runs and struck out one. He left his debut start with the Blue Jays due to lat soreness and has since been placed on the 15-day IL.

ICYMI

Cameron Misner walked it off for the Tampa Bay Rays on opening day against the Colorado Rockies.

At Mizzou, Misner hit 21 home runs before he was selected as the 35th pick in the 2019 draft by the Miami Marlins. He was then traded to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2021.

Who got the W? Alum Pete Fairbanks!

Some cool facts:

• The rookie became the first major leaguer to hit his first home run for a walk-off on Opening Day.
• The last time a Ray hit a walk-off home run on Opening Day was Carl Crawford in 2003.

But let’s get back to Mizzou baseball…

• Mizzou Baseball Series Preview: Tigers, Gators Meet as Bottom Two Teams in the SEC

Mizzou is still looking for its first conference win of the season. They will head to Gainesville to face a Florida team that is 1-11 in the SEC.

• In the midweek, Mizzou defeated SIUE by a score of 11-8 despite committing eight errors. Yes…you read that right. Yikes.

Last weekend, Mizzou faced conference rival #2 Arkansas and were swept three games to none.

• Mizzou Baseball dismantled by Arkansas

In one word: ouch. Mizzou lost all three games by 10+ runs.

The Tigers have now lost 12 conference games to open the season. After nine losses, the team had already set a record for most losses to begin conference play in program history.

Majority Rules

• The team is recording a new episode tonight, so be on the lookout for a new episode from your favorite Olympic Sports pod. Apologies that we haven’t been doing these every week. The sports schedules have been CRAZY.