On a breezy afternoon at Taylor Stadium, the Missouri Tigers took down the Texas Southern Tigers 15-7 to sweep the weekend series between the two. 

Missouri’s starting pitcher Rorik Maltrud gave up his first runs of the season in the top of the first as Southern Texas took an early 2-0 lead. With runners on second and third, infielder Daalen Adderly hit a routine flyout, but an error by the right fielder Carlos Peña gave time for the runners to score. 

The bottom of the first started off promising for Missouri with a leadoff single for Luke May, his third straight game with a leadoff hit. However, a flyout, strikeout, and groundout quickly ended the first inning. 

Maltrud looked much more comfortable on the mound in the top of the second, taking down the batters in order with a flyout and two strikeouts. 

Texas Southern made a surprisingly early pitching change in the bottom of the second, having right hand pitcher Jurgen Zwitzer replace Domenic Martinez. Zwitzer came in and immediately took down the Missouri batters in a 1-2-3 inning.  

In the top of the third inning, Missouri appeared like they would get out of it quickly, getting two outs right off the bat. However, a single by Castillo followed by Maltrud plunking Vasquez put a runner in scoring position. A double by Adderly allowed Castillo to score and then a three-run home run by Olivio had the Texas Southern bench going crazy over their 6-0 lead. 

Down 6-0, the Missouri Tigers needed a big fourth inning to stay in the game and boy did they deliver. The inning featured nine Missouri runs, one from every player in the batting order, and off three different Texas Southern pitchers. A three-run homer by Luke May and two-run home run by Lovich were the big scorers. The Tiger’s came out of the inning with a 9-6 lead. 

Missouri brought in a new pitcher, Austin Troesser, to start the fifth, and despite giving up a single, got out of the inning without giving up any runs. Troesser was clearly affected by the potential of Daalen Adderly on first stealing second, and tried to pick him off multiple times before he was tagged out on an attempted steal to end the inning. 

Right fielder Cam Chick made a highlight worthy diving catch to secure one of the outs in the fifth inning. Chick completely pancaked his body to make this catch. 

The Missouri Tigers added to their lead in the bottom of the fifth. A double by freshman Jackson Lovich brought in Mann and Colon for two additional scores to give the Tiger’s a 11-6 lead. 

Texas Southern chipped away at Missouri’s lead slightly with a powerful home run in the sixth by Roderik Coffee that easily went over the left field bullpen to cut Missouri’s lead to 11-7. 

Following the seventh inning stretch, Taylor Stadium went into silence after Texas Southern’s pitcher Cade Fontenot knee was struck in the knee by a Colon hit. The impact of the ball hitting Fontenot was heard all the way up in the press box, and Fontenot immediately collapsed after being hit. Thankfully he was ok and able to continue pitching after the trainers came out. 

Missouri added to their lead in the seventh with a two run RBI double by Austin with the bases loaded to bring the Missouri lead to 13-7. Texas Southern could not get anything going in the seventh or eighth. 

By the time the eighth inning came around, it was beginning to feel like viewers were at Faurot Field and not on the baseball diamond at Taylor Stadium. A Colon RBI and Careswell home run brought the Missouri Tigers lead up to 15-7. 

The Missouri Tigers had quite a few standout players that contributed to the big win. Freshman Jackson Lovich went 3-5 with four RBIs and a homerun in his first ever collegiate start. Leadoff hitter Luke Mann also went 3-5 with a homerun and three RBIs. 

The Missouri Tiger’s proved in this game they can handle adversity and can come back from large deficits with the help of explosive bats. The defense did allow a few errors that turned into runs, and Texas Southern did find success hitting the ball to left field between the shortstop and third. 

With the three game sweep of Texas Southern, Missouri wins their seventh straight game to bring their overall record to 9-2. They will next take on Western Illinois on Tuesday at 3pm.