Missouri's winning streak snapped at seven games

Missed offensive opportunities and poor pitching added to the loss.

By Evan Glantz

Published May 7, 2009

The Tigers baseball team went into Tuesday's game against the Missouri State Bears with a seven-game winning streak on the line. Missouri battled for nine innings, but could not walk away with the win, falling by a score of 10-5.

"It feels terrible,” junior Greg Folgia said. “It's just really annoying. I don't know what to say. Not a good game. Nothing seemed to go right today."

In the top of the second inning, Missouri State led off with back-to-back home runs by senior left fielder Chris Playter and junior designated hitter Daniel Torrente to take an early 2-0 lead.

"We pitched very defensively behind in the count and that leads to runs," coach Tim Jamieson said. "We needed someone to hop up there and put up a zero. And it only happened a couple times in the game. Two zeroes in nine innings, it's difficult to win games like that. We've got to be better on the mound and have guys attack the hitters a little bit more."

Missouri clawed its way back, tying the score at three, and then again at five. With the score knotted up, Playter started off the top of the sixth with a double. Three batters later, freshman shortstop Travis McComack broke the tie with a base hit to score Playter. The Bears added two insurance runs in the eighth and ninth to seal the win.

The team's pitching staff turned in a forgettable performance. Usually a reliable option for the Tigers, the nine pitchers used by Missouri surrendered 10 runs on 14 hits and six walks. The pitchers combined to strike out 10 Missouri State hitters.

"Their arms are fine," Jamieson said. "But there might be a few guys who aren't as confident as they were a month ago."

The Tigers failed to take advantage of offensive opportunities. After Folgia led off the second with his team-leading ninth home run, Missouri loaded the bases. The Tigers failed to capitalize, though, as senior second baseman Austin Holt flied out to right to end the threat.

Missouri got off to another good start in the sixth, when sophomore catcher Ryan Ampleman and junior left-fielder Aaron Senne led off with walks. Both came around to score on Holt's two-out double, but those would be the final runs for the Tigers.

"They came out ready to play today and really didn't make any mistakes," senior shortstop Kyle Mach said. "We had chances, but we just couldn't get a hit at the right time."