COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri baseball hosts No. 24 Ole Miss for its first Southeastern Conference home series of the 2025 season this weekend at Taylor Stadium.
The Tigers and Rebels will square off in a 6 p.m. contest Friday to open the series, before matching up again Saturday (4 p.m.) and Sunday (4 p.m.) to wrap up the weekend.
The first two contests of this weekend’s series will be streamed live by SEC Network+, with Matt Pauley and Dylan Kelly calling the action. Additionally, Sunday’s series finale will be televised live nationally on SEC Network, with Anish Shroff and Lance Cormier handling broadcast duties. All Mizzou baseball contests in 2025 will be produced by the Tiger Radio Network, with each of this weekend’s contests slated for radio broadcast locally in Columbia via KTGR AM/FM (105.1 FM/100.5 FM/1580 AM) and streamed via the Varsity Network app (by searching ‘Missouri’), with Tex Little and Matt Michaels handling broadcast duties.
Mizzou baseball single-game and 2025 season tickets are on sale now. Fans can purchase season tickets by calling the ticket office at 1-800-CAT-PAWS or by visiting MUTigers.com.
PROMOTIONS
• Friday, March 21 (6 p.m.) – Black Out / SEC Poster Series Giveaway
• Sunday, March 23 (4 p.m.) – Bark at the Park / Mizzou Baseball Dog Bandana Giveaway (first 150 dogs) / Kids Run the Bases
PITCHING PROBABLES
• Game 1 – Friday, March 21 (6 p.m.) – LHP Ian Lohse (Mizzou) vs. LHP Hunter Elliott (Ole Miss)
• Game 2 – Saturday, March 22 (4 p.m.) – LHP Wil Libbert (Mizzou) vs. RHP Riley Maddox (Ole Miss)
• Game 3 – Sunday, March 23 (4 p.m.) – TBD (Mizzou) vs. RHP Mason Nichols (Ole Miss)
SERIES HISTORY
• Ole Miss brings a 16-11 overall series edge against Missouri into this weekend’s series.
• The Tigers have won five of their eight home games against the Rebels, including series wins in each of the last two such series at Taylor Stadium in 2019 and 2023.
• Missouri’s 2023 series win over Ole Miss (May 4-6) featured a breakout performance by the Tigers offense, which plated 38 runs in the three-game set.
SCOUTING MISSOURI
• Missouri is coming off a 23-32 last spring in head coach Kerrick Jackson‘s first season at the helm.
• Jackson, who earned his 100th career coaching victory February 15 vs. UConn, was named the 15th head coach in Mizzou history in June 2023, returning to Columbia to lead a program for which he served as an assistant coach from 2011-15 under Mizzou Hall of Fame head coach (and current pitching coach) Tim Jamieson.
• Mizzou is off to an 8-11 start to the season after dropping its first three SEC contests to No. 2 LSU in Baton Rouge last weekend.
• The Tigers return four position starters from last season, led by junior 3B Jackson Lovich, who batted .287 with 10 homers and 35 RBIs, while ranking second in the SEC in triples (4); the Overland Park, Kan., native has hit .324 with three home runs over the first 19 games of 2025.
• Junior INF/OF Brock Daniels turned in a breakthrough year in 2024, registering a .296 batting mark, four home runs and 11 stolen bases.
• Sophomore C/1B Mateo Serna has delivered a strong season-opening stretch, bringing team-leading totals of 22 hits, 38 total bases, four home runs and 20 RBIs into Friday’s game.
• Sophomore OF Kaden Peer, who started 36 games in the Mizzou outfield as a freshman last spring, will be looking for a breakout season as well; he’s homered three times in the Tigers’ first 18 games to already surpass his 2024 season total, while also going 7-for-7 in stolen base attempts to start the new campaign.
• Additionally, newcomers OF Pierre Seals, OF Cameron Benson, OF Brady Picarelli and 1B/OF Cayden Nicoletto have made an immediate impact on the Tigers’ offensive fortunes; Nicoletto, in particular, brings Mizzou’s top batting mark (.392) into the weekend.
• On the mound, junior RHP Brock Lucas returns after going 4-0 with a 3.63 ERA in 18 relief appearances last spring; graduate LHP Ian Lohse (31 K’s in 29.1 IP), LHP Kadden Drew (DNP in 2024 due to injury) and redshirt freshman LHP Wil Libbert have each drawn starting assignments over the first five weeks of the season.
• RHP Ben Smith has logged seven scoreless outings in nine appearances to date, while RHPs Kaden Jacobi, Xavier Lovett and James Vaughn have provided solid relief work for the Tigers as well.
• Mizzou pitching has fanned 159 batters in 162.0 innings this season, including a total of 81 K’s over its nine home contests.
QUICK HITS
• Missouri OF Pierre Seals and Ole Miss C Collin Reuter were teammates on USA Baseball’s 2015 12U National Team. The duo helped Team USA win a gold medal at the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan.
• Mizzou has recorded four 15-hit performances to surpass its 2024 season total of three.
• 1B/OF Cayden Nicoletto has logged a pair of four-hit performances at Taylor Stadium, first doing so March 2 vs. Evansville, before repeating the feat March 8 vs. Binghamton; the senior transfer also has a pair of three-hit games to his credit.
• Led by OF Kaden Peer with seven steals in seven attempts, the Tigers’ running game has netted 34 steals in 40 attempts this season; MU ranks fourth in the SEC in steals per game (1.79).
• Peer has reached base safely in 12-straight contests since Feb. 23.
• In MU’s first 19 games of the 2025 season, 21 different players have made their debuts in Black and Gold.
• Mizzou’s catching combination of Jedier Hernandez and Mateo Serna combined to throw out 15 would-be base-stealers last spring and the duo has already teamed up to nail eight baserunners in the Tigers’ first 19 games this season.
• Serna reached base safely via a hit, walk or hit-by-pitch in 14 consecutive games, Feb. 15-March 8, including a career-best nine-game hit streak (Feb. 22-March 8), over which he batted .381 (16-for-42) with a six-game RBI streak (Feb. 22-March 1).
• OF Cameron Benson has hits in six-straight games (since Feb. 16), batting .417 over that stretch; he needs one hit to reach the 100-hit plateau for his Division I career.
• INF Jackson Lovich logged a team-best 10-game hit streak, Feb. 28-March 15, over which he batted .459 (17-for-37), raising his season average .179 to .338.
• RHP Brock Lucas has rebounded from a slow start this season to allow just one unearned run over his last 7 1/3 innings spanning four relief outings (March 7-16); the junior has fanned eight hitters over that stretch.
• LHP Ian Lohse hiked his career strikeout total to 133 last weekend at LSU; 51 of those K’s have come during his 24 mound appearances in SEC play.
SCOUTING OLE MISS
• Under the direction of 25th-year head coach Mike Bianco, the Rebels bring a 15-5 overall record and 1-2 mark in SEC play into this weekend’s series; Ole Miss is ranked as high as No. 18 (D1Baseball/Coaches) in this week’s national polling.
• The Rebels knocked off No. 3 Arkansas to open SEC play last Friday, before the Razorbacks rebounded to take the final two games of the series in Oxford; Ole Miss then dropped a Tuesday non-conference matchup with in-state rival No. 21 Southern Miss on Tuesday.
• Ole Miss is hitting .280 as a team, led by senior OF Ryan Moerman’s .342 average and 25 RBIs.
• Judd Utermark paces the Rebels and ranks sixth in the SEC in home runs (8), while Moerman’s nine doubles is the third-best total in the conference.
• Junior INF Luke Hill (.333 BA) has also been a force for the Rebels, with four home runs and a team-leading 23 runs scored.
• On the mound, Ole Miss has been solid with a 4.28 team ERA, while holding the opposition to a .249 batting mark through 20 games.
• The Rebels have racked up 232 strikeouts in just 174.2 innings pitched, led by LHP Hunter Elliott (4-0, 2.22 ERA), who has fanned 33 hitters in his 24.1 innings to date.
• Fellow weekend starters RHP Riley Maddox (3-2, 4.03 ERA) and RHP Mason Nichols (1-0, 3.66) have combined to strike out 50 hitters over 42.0 innings.
• RHP Connor Spencer has been lights-out in the Rebels bullpen, logging seven-straight relief outings without allowing an earned run this season.
LAST TIME WE MET
• Mizzou and Ole Miss treated the Taylor Stadium fans to a scoring bonanza in their most-recent matchup, May 4-6, 2023, as the two offenses combined to score 70 runs in the three-game set.
• Mizzou rallied from a seven-run deficit for an 11-9 win in game one of the series, marking the Tigers’ largest comeback victory since the 2019 season.
• The Tigers’ run total represented its best in an SEC series, and the most scored by a Mizzou offense over a three-game stretch since April 2009, when MU scored 42 runs in a three-game Big 12 Conference series against Texas Tech.
• MU blasted 15 home runs, with seven different Tigers going deep in the series, including five players — Luke Mann (4), Ty Wilmsmeyer (3), Matt Garcia (2), Tre Morris (2) and Hank Zeisler (2) — who hit multiple homers against the Rebels.
• Additionally, C Calvin Harris clubbed a Rebels record four home runs in the finale, a 20-14 Ole Miss win.
• Mizzou scored at least one run in 15 of its final 18 turns at-bat in the series and put up multi-run scoring rallies in 10 different innings over the three-game stretch versus the Rebels.
OFF AND RUNNING
• Missouri has bolted from the starting gate offensively, thanks at least in part to a consistent running game that has resulted in the Tigers swiping 34 bases in its first 19 games.
• Mizzou is 34-of-40 in stolen base attempts to date, including a streak of at least one steal in 11 consecutive games (Feb. 15-March 2).
• Mizzou’s 34 steals rank 77th nationally and fifth in the SEC, trailing only Kentucky (51), Oklahoma (50), Vanderbilt (40) and Florida (38).
• OF Kaden Peer (7-for-7) and INF/OF Brock Daniels (6-for-8) have led the Tigers’ charge on the basepaths, combining to go 13-for-15 in steal attempts so far this season.
• In their Feb. 25 victory over Lindenwood, the Tigers went 6-for-6 in steal attempts, logging their first six-steal performance since Feb. 19, 2022 vs. Nicholls.
• In the Tigers’ 23 wins last season, MU baserunners were successful on 33-of-41 steal attempts.
HOME COOKIN’
• The Tigers found the friendly confines of Taylor Stadium much to their liking over their first home stand of the season.
• Mizzou hit .344 with 107 hits over its first nine home games of the season, raising its overall team batting mark from .245 to .301.
• 1B/OF Cayden Nicoletto led the Tigers with a .457 average during the home stand, including a pair of four-hit games and a grand slam for his first Mizzou home run.
• Nicoletto was one of six Tigers to hit better than .400 for the week of Feb. 24-March 2, three of whom posted four-hit performances or better (Cameron Benson and Brady Picarelli).
• Last year, the Tigers hit .285 at Taylor Stadium as a team, averaging 7.8 runs per contest at home.
• In its last 45 home games since May 2, 2023, Mizzou has flourished offensively at Taylor, hitting a combined .308, while clubbing 68 total home runs and averaging 8.5 runs per outing at home.
TIGERS AT THE TURNSTILES
• For the third year in a row, Mizzou baseball fans are leaving their mark, with the Tigers averaging 1,207 spectators per home date this season.
• With their announced crowd of 1,395 spectators for the final home game of the 2024 season vs. Auburn (May 12), the Tigers established a program single-season record for total attendance, finishing with 39,167 in 28 home dates.
• Additionally, the Tigers’ average home crowd of 1,399 ranked second all-time in program history, trailing only their 2023 average of 1,614.
GOING STREAKING
• Several Tigers have logged notable streaks this season: OF Cameron Benson brings a six-game hit streak (since Feb. 16) into Friday’s action, while OF Kaden Peer has reached base safely in 12 consecutive games going back to Feb. 23, going 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts over the same span.
• INF Trey Lawrence has reached base safely in 11-straight games for the Tigers as well.
• Additionally, INF Jackson Lovich hit in 10-straight games (Feb. 28-March 14), batting .459 (17-for-37).
• OF/1B Cayden Nicoletto recorded a nine-game hit streak, March 1-9, batting .469 (15-for-32).
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