Baseball Opens SEC Road Series with Florida Thursday Evening

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – University of Missouri baseball concludes a seven-game road swing this weekend when it travels to Condron Family Ballpark for a Southeastern Conference series against Florida.

The Tigers and Gators will open their series with a 6 p.m. (CDT) contest Thursday evening, before squaring off again Friday ( 5:30 p.m.) and Saturday (4 p.m.) to conclude the weekend.

Mizzou improved to 5-0 in midweek action this season with Tuesday’s 11-8 win at SIUE, the Tigers’ first true road victory of the season. Florida defeated rival No. 9 Florida State, 5-4, Tuesday evening.

Both Thursday’s opener and Saturday’s finale will be televised live nationally on SEC Network, with Clay Matvik and Todd Walker handling broadcast duties. Additionally, Friday’s contest will be streamed live by SEC Network+. All Mizzou baseball contests in 2025 will be produced by the Tiger Radio Network for local broadcast on KTGR AM/FM (Thursday and Saturday only) and streamed via the Varsity Network app (by searching ‘Missouri’), with Tex Little and Matt Michaels on the call.

PITCHING PROBABLES

• Game 1 – Thursday, April 10 (6 p.m.) – LHP Brady Kehlenbrink (Mizzou) vs. RHP Liam Peterson (Florida)
• Game 2 – Friday, April 11 (5:30 p.m.) – RHP Kaden Jacobi (Mizzou) vs. RHP Aiden King (Florida)
• Game 3 – Saturday, April 12 (4 p.m.) – TBD (Mizzou) vs. TBD (Florida)

SERIES HISTORY

• Florida brings a 31-8 series edge over Mizzou into Thursday’s contest.
• The Gators have won 20 of the previous 21 meetings with the Tigers in Gainesville, including 15 in a row since 2014.
• Mizzou recorded its first-ever series sweep of the Gators last April in Columbia with three-straight one-run victories at Taylor Stadium (April 4-6, 2024).
• UF claimed all three games in Gainesville two years ago, outscoring the Tigers by a 30-8 margin in the series (April 28-30, 2023).

SCOUTING MISSOURI

• Missouri is coming off a 23-32 campaign 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 a 12-20 start to the season after claiming its first road win of the campaign Tuesday night against SIUE.
• 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); despite missing the last four games due to injury, the Overland Park, Kan., native has been red-hot at the plate, hitting .436 (34-for-78) with six home runs and 27 RBIs, as well as hits in 17 of his last 20 games, since Feb. 28.
• Sophomore C/1B Mateo Serna has delivered a strong season-opening stretch, logging six home runs and 30 through the first half of the campaign.
• Sophomore OF Kaden Peer reached base safely in 21 consecutive games from Feb. 23-April 2; he leads the Tigers with 10 steals, 25 runs scored and 15 walks.
• Junior DH Gehrig Goldbeck has posted a .444 on-base percentage and five steals while holding down the leadoff spot in the Tigers’ batting order.
• Additionally, newcomers OF Pierre Seals, OF Cameron Benson, INF Peyton Basler, INF Keegan Knutson, OF Tyler Macon, 3B Chris Patterson, OF Brady Picarelli and 1B/OF Cayden Nicoletto have made an immediate impact on the Tigers’ offensive fortunes.
• Nicoletto, in particular, has been pivotal for MU, ranking second on the squad in hitting (.337) through the first half of the season.
• Patterson has burst onto the scene in the last two weeks, hitting .370 with 13 RBIs in his last eight contests since March 29.
• 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 is enjoying his best season as a Tiger after registering a team-high 39 strikeouts in just 29.2 innings of work, including a career-best eight punchouts March 21 vs. Ole Miss.
• LHP Kadden Drew and redshirt freshman LHP Wil Libbert have combined for five mound victories and 62.2 innings thus far.
• RHP Ben Smith has logged 11 scoreless outings in an SEC-leading 16 appearances to date, while RHPs Kaden Jacobi, Xavier Lovett and P.J. Green have provided solid relief work for the Tigers as well.

QUICK HITS

• Mizzou pitching has fanned 273 batters in 266.0 innings this season.
• MU has recorded five 15-hit performances to surpass its 2024 season total of three, as well as 18 double-digit hit totals, in just 32 contests this spring.
• 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 trio of three-hit games to his credit.
• Led by OF Kaden Peer with 10 steals, the Tigers’ running game has netted 53 steals in 66 attempts this season.
• MU ranks fourth in the SEC with a 1.66 steals-per-game average, which projects the Tigers to steal 91 bases over their 55-game regular-season slate; that total would represent the No. 3 season total in program history, trailing only the 2019 Tigers’ 101 steals and the 2011 club’s 94.
• Mizzou has recorded 19 sacrifice bunts this season, which rates as the second-best total in the SEC and ranks 53rd nationally.
• Led by Brock Daniels’ two triples, the Tigers lead the SEC with their 10 triples in 2025.
• The Tigers also rank third in the SEC and 25th nationally in HBPs with 66 on the season; Peer has been hit a team-leading 12 times this spring and 20 times for his career.
• INF Jackson Lovich has logged team-best totals of 12 multi-hit and nine multi-RBI performances; the junior is hitting a team-best .457 (16-for-35) with runners in scoring position, including 3-of-5 with the bases loaded.
• Over MU’s first 32 games of the season, 22 different players have made their debuts in Black and Gold.
• RHP Ben Smith’s 16 mound appearances lead the SEC and rank 27th among all Division I pitchers.
• 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 10 baserunners this season.
• RHP James Vaughn’s 13.15 strikeout/9.0 IP rate leads the Tigers, who have averaged 9.24 K’s per game so far this spring.

SCOUTING FLORIDA

• Under 18th-year head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, the Gators are off to a 21-14 start this spring.
• Florida is hitting .296 as a team, led by INF Colby Shelton’s .364 average; he leads the Gators in hits (51) and doubles (15), the latter of which leads all SEC batters.
• INF/OF Bobby Boser has been a force in the Gators’ lineup as well, pacing the club with 11 homers, 37 RBIs and 39 runs scored to rank among the conference’s leaders in each of those categories.
• C Brody Donay provides a potent power bat, slugging .700 with nine home runs entering the weekend.
• On the mound, the Gators have fanned 379 batters to date, good for third overall in the SEC.
• RHP Liam Peterson heads the weekend rotation with a 4-2 mound mark and 3.63 ERA, to go along with a team-best 54 K’s in 34.2 innings.
• RHP Aidan King has been solid in a starting role as well, bringing a 3-1 record and 3.13 ERA into the series.
• RHP Luke McNeillie has been the Gators’ workhorse out of the bullpen, logging a team-leading 15 appearances and three relief victories to date.

LAST TIME WE MET

• Mizzou completed its second SEC series sweep of a top 10 conference foe in as many seasons when it secured its first-ever sweep of No. 6 Florida last April at Taylor Stadium.
• The Tigers, who also swept No. 4 Tennessee at Taylor in March 2023, logged three consecutive one-run victories over the Gators to take the series.
• Mizzou pitching limited a potent UF lineup to a .196 batting mark for the series.
• RHP Logan Lunceford turned in 6.0 shutout innings in the opener, holding the Gators to a single hit, while combining with RHP Carter Rustad on a two-hit, 2-1 victory in 11 innings.
• The Tigers fanned a season-high 14 hitters in the finale and averaged 12.0 strikeouts per game for the series.
• At the plate, C Jedier Hernandez turned in a series to remember, hitting a club-best .417 while driving in key runs in each victory; he plated the game-winning run on an 11th inning single in Friday’s opener, drove in the tying run in the sixth inning of game two, then brought home two more runs in the finale.

NEW LIFE FOR NEUBECK

• LHP Tony Neubeck traversed a long and winding road back from an arm injury that sidelined the junior for better than two years, making his first appearance of the 2025 season vs. UAPB on April 2.
• Neubeck worked an inning of the Tigers’ 8-7 victory over UAPB, striking out one and allowing a pair of hits in his first mound appearance since March 19, 2023 – a span of 745 days.
• The lefty from Hugo, Minn., earned the starting nod in game two of last Sunday’s doubleheader at No. 2 Arkansas, marking his first start since March 4, 2023 vs. Texas Southern.

THROWING SMOKE

• Mizzou’s pitching staff has posted a strong first half in the strikeout department, logging 273 punchouts in 266.0 total innings.
• The Tigers’ 9.24 strikeouts per game average projects to 508 K’s for the regular season, which would be their top season total since 2019, when MU registered a program-record 559 strikeouts.
• Individually, RHP James Vaughn leads the Tigers with his 13.15 K/9.0 IP rate, while seven additional MU hurlers – RHP Victor Christal, RHP Kaden Jacobi, LHP Brady Kehlenbrink, LHP Ian Lohse, RHP Seth McCartney, LHP Tony Neubeck and RHP Ben Smith – bring rates of 10.0 K’s per game or better into Thursday’s game.
• LHP Ian Lohse leads the Tigers with a 3.3 K/BB ratio, to go along with his season average of 11.83 K/9.0 IP.

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 53 bases in its first 32 games.
• MU is 53-of-66 in stolen base attempts to date, including a streak of at least one steal in 11 consecutive games (Feb. 15-March 2).
• Mizzou’s 53 steals rank fourth in the SEC.
• OF Kaden Peer (10-for-11) and INF/OF Brock Daniels (7-for-9) have led the Tigers’ charge on the basepaths, combining to go 17-of-20 in steal attempts 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.
• With their average of 1.66 steals-per-game, the Tigers are projected to steal 91 bases this spring, which would rank as the No. 3 season total in program history, trailing only the 2019 Tigers’ 101 steals and the 2011 club’s 94.
• In all, 15 different Tigers have successfully swiped at least one base this season.

IN THE CLUTCH

• The Tigers have produced an average of 7.2 runs per contest over their first 32 games thanks in large part to a lineup that has received balanced production in the clutch.
• As a team, Missouri is batting .311 (112-for-360) with runners in scoring position, including .347 (17-for-49) with the bases loaded.
• INF Jackson Lovich has been the Tigers top performer in such situations, hitting a blistering .457 (16-for-35) this spring with runners in scoring position and 3-for-5 with the bases full.
• Lovich has also been Mizzou’s top two-out hitter, recording a team-best 14 two-out RBIs.
• INF Peyton Basler has logged four hits with the bases loaded, and INF Cayden Nicoletto has hit .387 with runners in scoring position.

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