Mizzou baseball tops Northwestern Saturday with help from the long ball


By Caleb Lewis
Game two of the three-game set between the Northwestern Wildcats and the Missouri Tigers was a barn burner, to say the least.
Mizzou came into the game looking to win the series after winning game one. The weather for the game had a feeling that it could play a factor in the flight of the ball. The winds were blowing towards the outfield, rain was in the forecast and had been on and off again throughout the day before the game.
Starting for the Tigers was Jacob Cantleberry, who was able to retire the first three Wildcats with ease and picked up his first strikeout of the game. The starter for the Wildcats, Hank Christie, also picked up his first strikeout.
Christie was not as lucky as Cantleberry- and gave up a solo homerun tp Kameron Misner with two outs. Mizzou was on the board and led 1-0 after the first inning. In the 2nd inning, the Wildcats were able to get on the board after Shawn Goosenburg drove in Willie Bourbon on a single to left field. The score was tied 1-1 going to the bottom of the 2nd inning until Chad McDaniel had a lead off double. McDaniel found home when the next batter for the Tigers, Tony Ortiz, hit a two-run home run which gave Mizzou the lead again. The Wildcats were able to stop the Tigers only giving up the two runs in the 2nd. Northwestern was able to answer back to anything Mizzou did offensively, getting two runs from a single by Casey O’Laughlin.
Mizzou’s half of the 3rd is when the game changed from a duel to a game of catch-up. A lead-off double by Connor Brumfield, a wild pitch, and single to right field by Luke Mann gave the Tigers the lead. This time Mizzou was not done and continued to put on more runs thanks to a 2-run homerun by Chris Cornelius. After single by Chad McDaniel, Tony Ortiz to stepped up to tehe plate again. Just like his first plate appearance, Ortiz smashed it out of the ball park.
His second homerun powered a five-run third for Mizzou. Going into the fourth, Mizzou lead 8-3. Northwestern was only able to muster a single in the top of the frame. Mizzou, despite the cold weather, was swinging a hot bat and continued were they left off in the 3rd inning. A single by Cornelius and an error by the Wildcats brought in another run for the Tigers. The Wildcats balked with the bases loaded and another run came home. Back to back RBI singles by Mark Vierling and Broyles brought two home two more runs. Vierling scored on a wild pitch. The Wildcats stopped the oil leak with a strike out, but the damage had been done. Mizzou scored five runs for the second inning in a row. At the end of the inning, Mizzou had busted the game  13-3.
The sixth started with Mizzou adding more to their lead with an RBI single by Gomez. If the situation was right by SEC’s interpretation of the mercy rule in college baseball, the 7th inning would have been the last inning of the game since Mizzou had an eleven-run lead. Nonetheless, the game would be delayed, much to the dismay of the Missouri faithful.
Rain started to come down at heavy rate, and the temperature started to drop after the 7th inning. Mizzou’s relieves started to have a harder time finding the strike zone which gave Northwestern a chance to get better pitches to hit. The Wildcats were able to score two runs in the 8th coming from an RBI single by David Dunn, and a hit by pitch with the bases loaded. For the second inning in a row, Mizzou was scoreless but still lead 16-7 going into the 9th inning. Northwestern did not go down quietly and tried to have a last-minute rally. After a single by Dickey, David Dunn ca,e back to the plate. Dunn hit a 3 run home run. Mizzou ended the game the next batter, and won the game by a 16-11 final.
Edited by Garrett Jones | gcjh23@mail.missouri.edu

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