COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri baseball wraps up a busy home stretch with a pair of midweek non-conference contests Tuesday and Wednesday against Arkansas-Pine Bluff at Taylor Stadium.
The Tigers and Golden Lions will square off in a 6 p.m. contest Tuesday to open the two-game set, before matching up again Wednesday for a 7 p.m. tilt.
Tuesday’s series opener will be streamed live by SEC Network+, with Mickey Doolittle and Jack McGrath calling the action. Additionally, Wednesday’s series finale will be televised live on SEC Network, with Mark Neely and Gregg Olson handling broadcast duties. All Mizzou baseball contests in 2025 will be produced by the Tiger Radio Network and streamed via the Varsity Network app (by searching ‘Missouri’), with Tex Little and Matt Michaels on the call.
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
• Tuesday, April 1 (6 p.m.) – Half-Price Beer (through 3rd inning)
• Wednesday, April 2 (7 p.m.) – International Student Night / Half-Price Beer (through 3rd inning)
PITCHING PROBABLES
• Game 1 – Tuesday, April 1 (6 p.m.) – TBA (Mizzou) vs. TBA (UAPB)
• Game 2 – Wednesday, April 2 (7 p.m.) – TBA (Mizzou) vs. TBA (UAPB)
SERIES HISTORY
• Missouri holds a 6-1 series advantage against UAPB, with all seven previous meetings taking place in Columbia.
• The Tigers have won the last four meetings with the Golden Lions dating back to 2015.
• Mizzou swept a two-game set in the most recent matchup in the series, claiming wins of 13-1 and 15-6 at Taylor Stadium, April 11-12, 2017.
• MU’s two games against UAPB will mark the Tigers’ fourth and fifth meetings with Southwestern Athletic Conference clubs this season; the Tigers defeated Florida A&M and Southern, and lost to Alabama State at the Andre Dawson Classic in Vero Beach, Fla., Feb. 21-23.
• The Tigers bring a cumulative 22-2 all-time record against the current membership of the SWAC into Tuesday’s contest.
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 a 9-17 start to the season after dropping all three of its SEC games with No. 7 Texas this past weekend in Columbia.
• 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 been red-hot at the plate, hitting .429 (30-for-70) with five home runs and 19 RBIs, as well as hits in 15 of his last 18 games, since Feb. 28.
• Sophomore C/1B Mateo Serna has delivered a strong season-opening stretch, logging team-leading totals of six home runs and 26 RBIs entering play this week.
• Sophomore OF Kaden Peer has homered three times in the Tigers’ first 26 games to already surpass his 2024 season total, while also going 7-for-8 in stolen base attempts to start the new campaign.
• Junior DH Gehrig Goldbeck has posted a .455 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, 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, sharing the team’s top overall batting mark (.357) through the first half of the season.
• 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 four mound victories and 48.0 innings thus far.
• RHP Ben Smith has logged 10 scoreless outings in 14 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
• Missouri pitching has fanned 229 batters in 223.0 innings this season, including a total of 143 K’s over its 15 home contests.
• Mizzou has recorded four 15-hit performances to surpass its 2024 season total of three, as well as 15 double-digit hit totals, in just 26 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 seven steals, the Tigers’ running game has netted 40 steals in 50 attempts this season.
• Peer has reached base safely in 19-straight contests since Feb. 23, marking the longest such streak by a Tiger since Hank Zeisler reached safely in 19 consecutive games, April 11-May 14, 2023.
• MU ranks third in the SEC with a 1.54 steals-per-game average, which projects the Tigers to steal 85 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 clubs’ 94.
• INF Jackson Lovich has logged eight multi-hit performances in the Tigers’ 15 home games and has at least one hit in all but three of those, including an 11-game home hit streak, March 1-23.
• In MU’s first 26 games of the season, 22 different players 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 nine baserunners in the Tigers’ first 23 games this season.
• LHP Ian Lohse hiked his career strikeout total to 144 with Friday’s effort vs. No. 7 Texas; he turned in a career-best eight K’s vs. Ole Miss (March 21).
SCOUTING UAPB
• Under the direction of first-year head coach Logan Stout, the Golden Lions enter Tuesday’s matchup with a 5-23 overall record.
• UAPB dropped all three of its SWAC contests with Alabama State this past weekend in Pine Bluff and is 3-6 overall in conference play this spring.
• The Golden Lions are batting .275 as a club, led by senior C Vinny Saumell’s .354 average and 21 RBIs.
• UAPB has stolen 44 bases, with senior OF Gavin Terry (8 steals) and junior OF Dane Small (7) combining to go 15-for-15 on the year.
• Senior INF Jesus Riera has been the Golden Lions top power threat with four home runs to date.
• On the mound, UAPB has compiled an 8.77 team ERA.
• Junior RHP Emerson Lott has been the Golden Lions’ workhorse out of the bullpen, working 21.2 innings over 14 appearances with a 4.15 ERA.
• Senior RHP Brant Voth has worked 40.1 innings in both starting and relief roles, racking up a team-best 24 strikeouts.
LAST TIME WE MET
• Mizzou pushed its win streak to four games with a 15-6 win that completed a two-game sweep of UAPB, at Taylor Stadium on April 12, 2017.
• MU posted a pair of seven-run innings (the first and fourth) and pounded out four extra-base hits and two homers.
• After the Golden Lions sliced the margin to one run in the third inning, Mizzou broke it open again with one run in the third and seven more in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by homers from Brian Sharp and Kameron Misner, who scored six times and drove in six runs in the two-game series.
• Misner also enjoyed a standout performance in the opening game of the set, going 3-for-3 with four RBIs and four runs scored in a 13-1 MU win.
• Connor Brumfield added a three-hit effort and drove in a pair of runs, while Andy Toelken tossed a complete-game, two-hitter to earn the mound victory.
HITTIN’ PRETTY
• Mizzou’s offense has found an early groove, posting 15 double-digit hit totals in its first 26 games.
• MU is averaging 9.54 hits per contest, which would project to a season total of 525 total hits; that figure would represent the Tigers’ best over a full season in 13 years (558 in 2012).
• The Tigers’ current .283 season batting average represents their best since 2022, when MU batted .284 for the full campaign.
• Over a 10-game stretch, Feb. 23-March 9, the Tigers racked up 121 hits – an average of 12.1 per game, while scoring at a 9.2 runs/game clip.
• During the same span, Missouri totaled 31 hits over two separate two-game stretches, Feb. 23-25 and March 1-2, marking the Tigers’ top two-game totals since April 28-May 1, 2019.
• Individually, the hits have been coming in bunches, as three Mizzou newcomers have logged four hits (or more) in a game on four occasions:
- Brady Picarelli – 5-for-5 vs. Lindenwood (Feb. 25)
- Cameron Benson – 4-for-4 vs. Lindenwood (Feb. 25)
- Cayden Nicoletto – 4-for-5 vs. Evansville (March 1) and 4-for-5 vs. Binghamton (March 8)
• Mizzou has notched four separate 15-hit performances in their first 26 games, already surpassing its 2024 season total of three 15-hit games.
HOME COOKIN’
• The Tigers have found the conditions at Taylor Stadium much to their liking over their first 15 home games of the 2025 season.
• MU has hit .305 with 155 hits, 17 homers and 108 runs scored (7.2 rpg.) over its first 15 home games.
• INF Jackson Lovich leads the way with a .429 batting mark at Taylor this season, including an 11-game home hit streak, Feb. 28-March 23.
• 1B/OF Cayden Nicoletto has been hot at home as well, boasting a .388 average in his 14 games at Taylor, including a pair of four-hit games and a grand slam.
• 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 51 home games since May 2, 2023, Mizzou has flourished offensively at Taylor, hitting 75 total home runs and averaging 8.1 runs per outing.
SHOW-ME STATE TO THE SHOW
• With Major League Baseball kicking off its 2025 season this week, four former MU baseball standouts earned spots on Opening Day rosters.
• Tiger legend RHP Max Scherzer (2004-06) began his 18th Major League season this spring after signing an offseason free agent deal with Toronto.
• Scherzer claimed his second World Series title in 2023, helping the Texas Rangers to their first world championship.
• RHP Tanner Houck (2015-17) turned in his best season as a professional in 2024, logging nine wins, a 3.12 ERA and 137 strikeouts for the Boston Red Sox..
• RHP Pete Fairbanks (2013-15), a ninth-round choice of the Rangers in 2015, has recorded 48 saves for the Tampa Bay Rays over the last two seasons and 63 for his MLB career — the most ever by a Mizzou product.
• Fairbanks welcomed fellow Tiger alum OF Kameron Misner (2017-19) to Tampa late in the 2024 season. Misner, a first-round MLB Draft pick of the Miami Marlins in 2019, made his big league debut with the Rays.
• Additionally, RHP Kyle Gibson (2007-09) signed to the Baltimore Orioles’ 40-man roster as a free agent on March 22. A 2009 first-round MLB Draft selection, Gibson brings a big league career total of 112 mound victories into the 2025 season.
GOING STREAKING
• Several Tigers bring notable streaks into Tuesday’s series opener, led by OF Kaden Peer, who has reached base safely in 19 consecutive games going back to Feb. 23.
• Peer’s streak matches the longest by a Tiger since INF Hank Zeisler reached in 19-straight games from April 11-May 14, 2023.
• INF Trey Lawrence and INF Tyler Macon have reached in 12-consecutive games.
• Additionally, INF Jackson Lovich recorded the longest hit streak by a Tiger so far this season with a 10-game streak, Feb. 28-March 14, over which he batted .459 (17-for-37).
• OF/1B Cayden Nicoletto recorded a nine-game hit streak (March 1-9) as did C/1B Mateo Serna (Feb. 22-March 8).
NON-CON DOMINANCE
• Mizzou concluded the 2024 season with a 14-11 record against non-conference opponents.
• The Tigers clinched a winning non-conference season slate for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons; only MU’s 2021 squad (7-14) failed to reach the .500 mark vs. non-SEC foes over that span.
• MU logged a 20-3 mark against non-SEC foes in 2023, after going 18-3 in non-league games in 2022.
• Mizzou has an overall mark of 61-25 in non-SEC competition since the start of the 2022 season.
• Over the last decade, the Tigers’ dominance has been equally impressive, with MU winning 103 more non-conference games than it has lost (188-85).
TIGERS AT THE TURNSTILES
• For the third year in a row, Mizzou baseball fans are leaving their mark, with the Tigers averaging 1,328 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.
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