No. 25/29 Baseball Travels to Lexington for Weekend Series With No. 12/16 Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. – No. 25/29 Missouri concludes a nine-game road swing this weekend with a three-game Southeastern Conference series against No. 12/16 Kentucky, beginning with a 5:30 p.m. (CDT) contest Friday (March 31) at Kentucky Pride Park.

The Tigers (19-6, 3-3 SEC) claimed midweek victories over Illinois (March 28) and Lindenwood (March 29) after dropping all three of their conference road games at No. 4 South Carolina last weekend to start their current road trip.

Kentucky (22-3, 5-1 SEC) bounced back from a Sunday setback at Alabama with a 10-8 midweek road win over Western Kentucky. The Wildcats have won five of their six SEC games, posting the nation’s longest win streak of 17 straight victories prior to Sunday’s loss.

Fans can once again catch Mizzou baseball on the airwaves all season long on KTGR and the Tiger Radio Network. Tex Little and Matt Michaels return to the booth for the call. Additionally, Sunday’s contest will be televised live on the SEC Network, with Steve Lenox and Todd Walker calling the action. Each of the first two games of the series will be streamed live on SECN+.

PITCHING PROBABLES

• Game 1 – RHP Austin Troesser (Mizzou) vs. TBD (Kentucky)
• Game 2 – RHP Chandler Murphy (Mizzou) vs. LHP Tyler Bosma  (Kentucky)
• Game 3 – RHP Rorik Maltrud (Mizzou) vs. RHP Zack Lee (Kentucky)

SERIES HISTORY

• Mizzou and Kentucky will meet for the 28th time to open the series Friday.
• The Wildcats hold a 15-12 advantage over the Tigers, despite Mizzou winning two of the three meetings last season in Columbia.
• UK holds a 7-4 edge in games played in Lexington, including a 2-1 mark vs. MU at Kentucky Pride Park.
• Last year, the Tigers won the final two games of the series at Taylor Stadium, totaling 19 runs over the two victories.
• Tony Neubeck worked 7.0 innings of a 9-4 victory to even the series at one game apiece, before Carter Rustad held UK scoreless for 4.2 innings in a 10-6 win in the rubber match.

MEET THE TIGERS

• Missouri is off to a 19-6 overall start this season.
• The Tigers are ranked in at least one top 25 poll for the second week in a row.
• Mizzou’s 2023 roster features a heavy helping of talent from within the state of Missouri’s borders, with 16 players from the Show-Me State.
• Additionally, Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser has brought in players from a total of 16 different states, plus the territory of Puerto Rico.
• Hank Zeisler has been the Tigers’ most consistent power threat and run producer, totaling nine home runs and 32 RBIs to date.
• Luke Mann is hitting .361 to go along with eight homers, three of which came in last Friday’s contest at No. 4 South Carolina as part of a 4-for-5, 6-RBI night.
• Zach Franklin leads the club with four victories and two saves in nine relief appearances.
• As a team, the Tigers are batting .287 through the first 25 games of the season.
• The Mizzou pitching staff has logged double-digit strikeout totals in 17 of its 25 games and rank 29th nationally in team ERA entering the weekend.

MEET THE WILDCATS

• Under the direction of seventh-year head coach Nick Mingione, Kentucky enters the series having won 18 of its last 19 contests and 22 of 25 overall.
• The Wildcats swept Mississippi State to open SEC play, then took two of three from Alabama last weekend to bring a 5-1 league mark into this weekend’s series.
• UK is hitting .304 as a squad and has outscored the competition 208-83 in 25 games.
• The Wildcats pitching staff has posted a 3.16 ERA to date, which ranks eighth among all Division I teams.
• Senior infielder Hunter Gilliam leads the team with a .398 batting average, five home runs and 35 RBIs.
• The duo of Jackson Gray and Jase Felker have combined to steal 23-of-29 bases this season.
• Seven different Kentucky pitchers have registered at least 20 strikeouts on the season, led by Zack Lee’s 29.
• Lee leads the weekend rotation with his 2.73 ERA, while Mason Moore has saved three games and posted a 1.56 ERA in eight appearances.

SUPER-MANN TAKES FLIGHT

• Luke Mann became the second Tiger in 10 days to hit three home runs in a game last Friday at No. 4 South Carolina as part of a career-best four-hit performance.
• Mann continued his climb up the Mizzou home run chart (see above), hitting his 34th, 35th and 36th career home runs in Friday’s contest to move into sole possession of the No. 7 spot on the list.
• Mann needs one more long ball to tie Cody Ehlers (37) in the No. 6 spot and two more to match Griffin Moore (38) and climb into Mizzou’s top 5.
• The St. Louis native logged a career-best 12-game hit streak (Feb. 24-March 15).
• The fifth-year third baseman hit .400 (18-for-45) with four homers and 11 RBIs during his hit streak.
• Mann was tabbed for first-team preseason laurels, becoming the first Tiger honoree since Kameron Misner’s second-team selection five years ago.
• Mann’s 17 home runs in 2022 were the most by a Tiger since Ehlers hit 18 round-trippers in 2004.

MIZZOU BY THE NUMBERS

• Missouri has outscored the opposition 25-12 in the first inning and is 17-0 when scoring first this season.
• The Tigers are 6-0 on Sunday, outscoring the opposition by a 52-28 margin in those games.
• Mizzou has out-hit the competition in 20 of its 25 games, going 18-2 in those contests.
• Justin Colon has reached base safely in 57.9 percent of his leadoff opportunities this season.
• Hank Zeisler has produced 14 of his team-leading 32 RBIs with two out.
• Zeisler has driven in 14 runs in Mizzou’s last 10 games.
• Trevor Austin has driven in runs in 10 of his 11 opportunities with runners on third base and less than two out.
• Rorik Maltrud has registered a 10.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio and leads the SEC in walks allowed per nine innings (1.42).
• Logan Lunceford has logged team-best totals of 15.0 innings and 22 strikeouts while going 2-0 on the mound over the last 10 games.
• Luke Mann has hit .433 (13-of-30) in eight true road games, while Austin Troesser has recorded 14 K’s and a 2.25 ERA in three road outings.
• Mizzou’s pitching staff has yielded just 155 hits on the season, which ranks as the third-fewest in the SEC.

THROWING SMOKE

• Mizzou’s pitching staff is off to a blazing hot start, with 17 double-digit strikeout totals in its first 25 games.
• With 272 K’s to date, the Tigers are on pace to shatter the program’s single-season record for strikeouts (559 in 2019).
• The Tigers rank ninth nationally as a staff in strikeouts per nine innings (11.6).
• Mizzou’s team WHIP of 1.21 ranks 10th among all Division I pitching staffs, while the Tigers’ 6.6 hits allowed per game ranks sixth in the nation.
• As a staff, the Tigers have limited the opposition to a collective .202 batting average, with six different pitchers logging averages against of .200 or less.
• Individually, Zach Franklin’s four wins are tied for 27th among all Division I pitchers.
• Rorik Maltrud has been dominant as well, ranking among the national leaders in WHIP (4th), strikeout-walk ratio (10th), hits allowed per nine innings (11th) and strikeouts per nine innings (18th).

TO BE FRANK

• Mizzou graduate transfer Zach Franklin has made an immediate impact in his first season with Mizzou, going 4-1 with two saves and 39 strikeouts in just 17.1 IP.
• Franklin is the SEC’s active leader in career wins (20) and strikeouts (253), ranking third among all active NCAA Division I pitchers in those two categories as well.
• The Marion, N.C., native has also recorded 13 saves in his career, which rank third on the active SEC list.
• Franklin has also recorded the top velocity by a Tiger pitcher this season, topping out at 98.26 MPH vs. TCU on Feb. 19.
• In his eight 2023 outings to date, Franklin has registered at least six punchouts in four of those.

BIESER BELIEVER

• Mizzou head coach Steve Bieser is in his seventh year guiding the Tigers, entering the week with a 177-137-1 record as MU’s bench boss.
• Bieser topped the 300-victory mark with Mizzou’s 10-4 win at FIU on Feb. 25, and enters Friday’s game with a career 315-234-1 mark in 11 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
• The Tigers have finished with an overall record above .500 in five of Bieser’s six seasons.
• Bieser’s 104 wins from 2017-19 were the most ever by a Mizzou baseball coach in his first three campaigns.
• Additionally, Bieser’s win total marked the winningest three-year stretch by the Tigers since 2008-10 (103 victories).
• Mizzou produced 39 wins in Southeastern Conference play from 2017-19 as well, marking its top three-year stretch in league play since joining its new conference in 2013.

TIGERS ON THE TUBE

• Missouri is slated to appear in at least nine linear broadcasts on the ESPN family of networks over the course of the 2022 season.
• The Tigers will play in eight matchups televised on the SEC Network, including this Sunday’s game at UK.
• Additionally, four regular-season dates have been designated as potential wild cards, allowing the league to select additional games for broadcast.
• Mizzou’s SEC matchups and select non-conference games will stream on SEC Network+, including two of this weekend’s upcoming contests (Friday and Saturday).

FOLLOW THE TIGERS

For all the latest information on Mizzou Baseball, please visit MUTigers.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Tigers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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