Baseball off to a rough start

Posted to Sports Blog by JJ Stankevitz at 1:54 p.m., Feb. 27, 2009

A week ago, the Tigers sat a day away from the season opener as the No. 10 team in the nation. Despite losing an ace starter in Aaron Crow and an offensive force in Jacob Priday from the 2008 team, Missouri was expected to contend for a berth in the College World Series -- which the school has not reached since 1964.

While it’s only five games into the season, things have not gone as planned for the Tigers so far. After winning the first game of the season against Nevada, Missouri has dropped five in a row to Gonzaga, Nevada, Gonzaga again and No. 8 Arizona State twice. The road for Missouri will not get any easier, as the Tigers will play three more games in the Arizona State Tournament -- Friday against Oregon State, Saturday against Northern Illinois and Sunday against Arizona State.

One of the biggest problems for Missouri in the first six games of the year has been leaving men on base. The Tigers have stranded 50 baserunners compared to 34 for opponents. Aaron Senne and Trevor Coleman, who were big parts of the Tiger offense last year, are a combined 8/37 with just four RBI and one extra base hit between them. In 178 at-bats, the entire Missouri offense has hit just two home runs (eight hit by opponents) and has driven in 22 runs (33 for opponents).

All has not been sub-par for the Tigers on offense, though. Ryan Lollis has opened the year on fire, going 8/19 with a home run, two doubles, a triple, six RBI, and six runs scored. Greg Folgia has done a good job in the leadoff spot, sporting a .542 on-base percentage in 24 plate appearances along with knocking out two doubles, a triple, and a home run.

After Kyle Gibson turned in a solid six-inning outing in the season opener, the Tigers have struggled to find consistency with the rest of the starting rotation. Ian Berger gave up seven runs (only three of which were earned) in five innings in his first start of the year and Nick Tepesch was hit hard to the tune of nine runs (six earned) on 11 hits in four innings.

However, a positive trend for the Tiger pitching staff has been how well they have limited walks. In 43.0 innings, Missouri’s pitchers have walked just 10 batters, compared to 25 in 45 innings for opponents. Keeping free passes down could be a big key to this pitching staff’s success down the road.

Finally, defense has been an issue for the Tigers early in the year. Missouri has already allowed ten unearned runs thanks to ten errors (coming out to a .945 fielding percentage). Shortstop Michael Liberto, who transferred to Missouri from Delgado Community College prior to the season, has struggled the most defensively. He has committed three errors in 19 chances, giving him a .842 fielding percentage.