By: Matthew Terry

Once again, Tanner Houck was straight up dominant. Houck pitched nine innings of shutout baseball, striking out 10 while only giving up 4 hits and walking just one, as the bats got behind him in the first and the eighth to give Mizzou the 2-0 victory. Houck got off to a hot start, striking out 6 batters in his first three innings as he picked up his fourth victory on the season to improve his record to 4-2 and lower his ERA on the season to 2.33.

Offensively, Mizzou didn’t do much but they did enough to get the win. In the first inning, a throwing error by Auburn second baseman Melvin Grey allowed Zach Lavy to score the first run of the game which would be the only run until the eighth inning when a wild pitch on a Shane Benes at-bat with bases loaded allowed Jake Ring to scramble home and give the Tigers an insurance run, extending the lead to 2-0 where it would remain as Tanner Houck got Auburn to go 1-2-3 in the top of the 9^th to complete his shutout and allow the Tigers to split the series heading into the rubber match of the series tomorrow.

(Photo: Jordan Kodner, Maneater)