Pitching solid in losing effort to Texas
Traveling south to take on the No. 1 Texas Longhorns, the Missouri Tigers baseball team officially opened conference play. After game one of the four-game series was rained out, the Tigers won the series opener, before dropping the next two.
While the series was not a success, some good came of it as well. Junior starting pitcher Kyle Gibson continued his dominating ways, going the distance for his second consecutive start and shutting out the potent Texas bats. Gibson also struck out 11 hitters, his second game in a row reaching double digits in that category. The overpowering performance was enough to earn him Phillips 66 Big 12 Pitcher of the Week.
Missouri’s other starters pitched admirably over the weekend as well. Senior Ian Berger struggled a bit, giving up four runs on four hits in five innings in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader.
But sophomore Nick Tepesch started his second straight solid game. Tepesch pitched a career high eight innings, surrendering only two runs. Had the bullpen not blow a late inning lead, the sophomore would have earned his second victory on the year.
It seems like the Tiger pitchers, especially the starters, are starting to find a groove now that they have been through a few turns in the rotation. The team still has some catching up to do in the Big 12, but conference play just started. This week, Missouri has a game against SIU Edwardsville, before starting a weekend series against Texas A&M. The Aggies are ranked No. 3 in the Baseball America Poll, so it should be interesting to see if the Tigers’ strong pitching holds up for a second week in a row.