The Missouri Tigers must not have been too happy after losing the opening game of the series to Northern Kentucky on Friday. The bats had been cold, before today’s game the Tigers had not scored more than five runs in five consecutive games. So on a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon at Taylor Stadium, the Tigers decided to do something about that.
The result? 14 runs in the first inning, and a blowout, 28-10 victory over the Norse. Mizzou head coach Kerrick Jackson applauded the team’s process-based approach leading to the win.
“My message to the team was, ‘Don’t worry about the outcome of the game, all I wanted to do was be able to come back to this meeting and say that we played well,” Jackson said.
In the top of the first inning, pitching once again looked shaky for Mizzou. Starter Carter Rustad, who came into the game with a 3.86 ERA over 9 ⅓ innings, could not command his offspeed pitches early. Rustad walked Northern Kentucky center fielder Tyler Shaneyfelt to begin the game, before a catcher’s interference infraction for the second straight game set the Norse up with a golden scoring opportunity.
Liam McFadden-Ackman stepped up to the plate, looking to grab an early lead for the Norse on the second consecutive ballgame. He immediately got ahead 3-0 in the count, primed to load the bases for the best hitter in the Norse lineup, catcher Jake Paulick.
However, Rustad had other plans. He quickly pumped in a fastball for a strike, before jamming McFadden-Ackman, causing him to foul out to first baseman Jackson Lovich. The rest of the inning was smooth sailing for Rustad, who got Paulick on a weak groundout to shortstop Drew Culberson before inducing a flyout to right to end the NKU threat with a zero in the box score.
Then, Mizzou’s offense decided to make a run at the history books, leaving Taylor Stadium with a score that on first glance more closely resembles a Tiger football game.
With the wind blowing out from right to left, the Missouri lineup was stacked with right-handed hitters, the only exception being center fielder Kaden Peer. They hoped to break out of the Tigers’ mini-slump against NKU starter Clay Brock, who had allowed 10 earned runs in only six innings of work entering the game. He left shortly after with nine more earned runs tacked onto his ledger while failing to record a full inning of work.
The Tigers took full advantage of Brock’s lack of command, coupled with a slower fastball that sat in the 85-86 MPH range on the afternoon. Tucker Moore started Mizzou’s rally with a seeing-eye ground ball single up the middle, and then Brock hit Trevor Austin and allowed a single to Lovich off the glove of McFadden-Ackman to load the bases with nobody out. Designated hitter Thomas Curry then struck out on a gorgeous changeup, but it was one of the only great pitches thrown by any Norseman in the inning.
After the strikeout, Mizzou’s carousel around the basepaths really began. Walks from Peer and Culberson, coupled with another HBP from Jackson Beaman and a single from catcher Jadier Hernandez gave the Tigers a 5-0 lead with the bases still loaded. Then, Austin provided the biggest blow of the inning, a two-out double into the left-center gap that cleared the bases, making the score 8-0 and removing Brock from the game.
Northern Kentucky brought in Jared Teke in an effort to slow the bleeding and get out of the nightmare first, but it was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Jackson Lovich wasted no time providing Teke a rough introduction to the game. He stepped into the box and drove in both himself and Austin on a towering two-run shot down the left field line, which was no doubt influenced by the gusting wind. The Tigers weren’t satisfied quite yet. They continued bashing Teke for four more runs, capped off by Jackson Beaman’s first home run since 2021 which drove in three to give Mizzou a 14-0 lead. Teke was pulled without recording a single out, giving way to Jackson Frazer who finally recorded the last out of the inning.
Beaman described his home run as a mindset switch paying off.
“I’ve battled injuries, battled not playing, but I’ve stayed ready for my opportunity because I knew it was going to come again,” he said.
The first inning was historically significant for Missouri. The 14 runs marked the Tigers’ largest inning since 2005, where they put up 17 runs in the second against Texas Tech back in the Big 12.
The rest of the game was mop-up duty for both squads. McFadden-Ackman and second baseman Mitch Wood both hit two-run shots for the Norse to make the scoreboard look a little nicer, but ultimately only affected their statlines. Northern Kentucky continued making some noise in the sixth inning against Mizzou junior reliever Xavier Lovett, who has battled injuries so far this season. Lovett, a hard-throwing righty, didn’t have his best stuff today but left with only one earned run on his line due to an error on Colon.
Jackson admits Lovett didn’t have his best outing.
“He was nervous. I know he didn’t come out the way he wanted to with the walks, but at the end of the day he gets a ground ball and we can’t catch it,” Jackson said.
Missouri didn’t stop scoring either. Not even close. The only inning with a zero in the run column was the fifth, as the Tigers kept tacking on with 3 runs in the fourth and nine more in the sixth. Northern Kentucky was not throwing their best relievers in a 10-run ballgame, but it is still a good sign that Mizzou was able to add on numerous insurance runs. The Tigers were able to extend the lead to 28-10 in the sixth, which allowed the ten run rule to be put into effect after the top of the seventh and prevent Mizzou from needing to burn more arms.
After all of the offensive carnage, the Tigers left Taylor Stadium with 16 hits, 11 walks and seven hit by pitches en route to an absurd 34 baserunners in SIX INNINGS of offense.
In all of this scoring, somehow Missouri only had three batters record three or more hits, including Colon, Beaman and Hernandez. The 18 combined walks and hit by pitches given up by NKU pitchers made life easy on Tiger batters throughout the game. The last time the Tigers scored 28 or more runs was in 2008 against the Texas Longhorns.
Missouri (5-5) and Northern Kentucky (3-7) have a rubber match tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. at Taylor Stadium to decide the series. NKU then heads to Bloomington to take on Indiana, while Mizzou stays home and will play Lindenwood on Tuesday.