Baseball Begins Road Swing with Tuesday Evening Matchup Against Missouri State

COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri baseball returns to Columbia to open a four-game home stand with a non-conference matchup against Missouri State Tuesday (April 15) evening at Taylor Stadium.

Mizzou has won the last five contests in its series with MSU and holds a 35-31 overall edge against the Bears. The Tigers are 192-85 in non-conference action since 2014, including a 65-25 mark over the last four seasons since 2022.

Tuesday’s game will be streamed on ESPN+. All Mizzou baseball contests in 2025 will be produced by the Tiger Radio Network for streaming via the Varsity Network app (by searching ‘Missouri’), with Tex Little and Matt Michaels on the call.

PITCHING PROBABLES

• RHP Sam Horn (Mizzou) vs. LHP Tyler Charlton (Missouri State)

SERIES HISTORY

• Mizzou brings an all-time series record of 35-31 vs. Missouri State into Tuesday’s matchup.
• The Tigers have claimed wins in the last five meetings, marking their longest win streak in the series since a five-game streak from 1975-84.
• MU defeated MSU, 10-9, last Tuesday in the two clubs’ first matchup of the season in Columbia.
• The Tigers also claimed both meetings from the Bears last spring, including a 6-2 win over MSU at Hammons Field and a 10-6 victory in Columbia.
• The Tigers are 13-17 against the Bears in Springfield but have won four of the last five meetings at Hammons Field.
• Mizzou has won 10 of the last 12 meetings overall in the series since 2018.

SCOUTING MISSOURI

• Missouri is coming off a 23-32 campaign 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 13-23 start to the season after dropping all three of its SEC contests to No. 16 Oklahoma over the weekend.
• 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 .412 (40-for-97) with seven home runs and 34 RBIs, as well as hits in 21 of his last 27 games, since Feb. 28.
• Sophomore OF Kaden Peer reached base safely in 21 consecutive games from Feb. 23-April 2; he leads the Tigers with 11 steals, while logging four home runs, 25 RBIs and 26 runs scored.
• Additionally, newcomers OF Pierre Seals, DH Gehrig Goldbeck, OF Cameron Benson, INF Peyton Basler, INF Keegan Knutson, OF Tyler Macon, 3B Chris Patterson, 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, hitting .303 with five homers and 19 RBIs through the first 39 games of the season.
• Patterson has burst onto the scene in the last three weeks, hitting .280 with 14 RBIs in his last 15 contests since March 29.
• Seals has been red-hot over the same stretch, batting a team-leading .395 while slugging .628 with three home runs in his last 14 contests.
• On the mound, senior RHP Kaden Jacobi has recorded a team-leading 40 punchouts in 38.1 innings as one of the Tigers’ weekend starters.
• Graduate LHP Ian Lohse is enjoying his best season as a Tiger after registering 39 strikeouts in just 29.2 innings of work, including a career-best eight strikeouts March 21 vs. Ole Miss.
• LHP Kadden Drew and redshirt freshman LHP Wil Libbert have combined for five mound victories and 62 strikeouts over their 68.2 total innings thus far.
• RHP Ben Smith has logged 11 scoreless outings in a team-high 18 appearances, while RHPs Xavier Lovett and PJ Green have combined for all three of the Tigers’ saves this spring.

QUICK HITS

• Mizzou pitching has fanned 318 batters in 318.1 innings this season, marking the 29th time in the last 30 years the Tigers have topped the 300-K plateau in a season.
• Mizzou has recorded five 15-hit performances to surpass its 2024 season total of three, as well as 20 double-digit hit totals, in just 39 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 11 steals, the Tigers’ running game has netted 57 steals in 75 attempts this season.
• MU ranks fourth in the SEC with a 1.46 steals-per-game average, which projects the Tigers to steal 81 bases over their 55-game regular-season slate; that total would represent the No. 5 season total in program history, trailing only the 2019 Tigers’ 101 steals, the 2011 club’s 94 and matching 83-steal campaigns in 2001 and 1979.
• Mizzou has recorded 21 sacrifice bunts this season, which rates as the second-best total in the SEC and ranks 74th nationally.
• Led by Jackson Lovich and Brock Daniels’ two triples, the Tigers rank second in the SEC with their 12 triples.
• The Tigers also rank third in the SEC and 33rd nationally in HBPs with 74 on the season; Peer has been hit a team-leading 16 times this spring and 24 times for his career.
• Lovich has logged team-best totals of 13 multi-hit and 11 multi-RBI performances; the junior is hitting a team-best .452 (19-for-42) with runners in scoring position, including 4-of-7 with the bases loaded.
• RHP Ben Smith’s 18 mound appearances are tied for fourth in the SEC.
• 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 14 baserunners this season.

SCOUTING MISSOURI STATE

• Under first-year head coach Joey Hawkins, the Bears are off to a 20-18 start this spring.
• Missouri State’s pitching staff leads the MVC and ranks 49th nationally with 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings.
• The Bears’ 2.15 K/BB ratio also leads the Valley and ranks 75th nationally.
• D1Baseball.com tabbed the Bears as the favorite to win the Missouri Valley Conference this season, with sophomore OF Caden Bogenpohl its preseason player of the year selection and RHP Michael Yusypchuk as its freshman of the year.
• INF Nick Rodriguez leads the Bears with a .367 batting mark to go along with 12 homers and 44 RBIs.
• INF/OF Jake McCutcheon has been a formidable power threat as well, hitting 12 round-trippers while batting .366 and driving in 37 runs.
• 1B Max Knight has driven in 38 runs and has 11 of the Bears’ 74 home runs to date.
• On the mound, the Bears are led by Yusypchuk and LHP Tyler Charlton, who have combined for seven wins and 100 strikeouts this season.
• Knight has been one of the Bears’ top bullpen arms as well, logging a 2-2 mark, a 4.28 ERA and two saves in 15 relief outings.

LAST TIME WE MET

• Jackson Lovich’s grand slam powered a seven-run second inning that helped the Tigers establish an early lead en route to a 10-9 victory over the Bears last Tuesday at Taylor Stadium.
• Lovich, who finished 2-for-5 with five runs batted-in, delivered a second clutch hit with his RBI triple as part of the Tigers’ go-ahead, three-run rally in the sixth inning that ultimately paved the way to Mizzou’s fifth-consecutive win in its series with the Bears.
• Missouri broke on top with its biggest inning since a nine-run rally vs. UAPB on April 1, using a Pierre Seals leadoff single to ignite its offense in the second; Chris Patterson put the Tigers on the board with a run-scoring double to right-center, before Peyton Basler added an RBI single to make it a 2-0 game.
• Next, a walk to Keegan Knutson and a Kaden Peer hit-by-pitch forced home another baserunner, setting up Lovich’s second grand slam in his last six games on the first pitch he saw from MSU’s Owen Slater.
• In order to notch their eighth home win of the season, the Tigers withstood a pair of MSU rallies after building the early 7-0 lead.
• After Mizzou starter Wil Libbert held the Bears in check early, registering a career-best seven strikeouts through the first four frames, another freshman pitcher would complete the victory for the Tigers.
• PJ Green took over in the seventh and promptly retired six straight hitters to bring MU to within two outs of victory. The right-hander yielded a one-out walk, followed by a two-run Caden Bogenpohl home run that cut the margin to just one run, but worked around a two-out triple to record the final out on an infield pop-up for his first collegiate mound victory.

NON-CONFERENCE DOMINANCE

• Mizzou improved to 13-8 against non-conference opponents with its 10-9 win over Missouri State last Tuesday.
• With just three non-SEC games left on their 2025 schedule, the Tigers have clinched a winning non-conference season slate for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons; only MU’s 2021 squad (7-14) failed to reach the .500 mark vs. non-SEC foes over that span.
• MU has an overall mark of 65-25 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 107 more non-conference games than it has lost (192-85).
• MU logged a 20-3 mark against non-SEC foes in 2023, after going 18-3 in non-league games in 2022.

THROWING SMOKE

• Mizzou’s pitching staff posted a strong first half of the season in the strikeout department, logging 318 punchouts in 318.1 total innings.
• The Tigers’ 8.99 strikeouts per game average projects to 495 K’s for the regular season, which would be their top season total since 2019, when MU registered a program-record 559 strikeouts.
• Individually, RHP James Vaughn leads the Tigers with his 12.83 K/9.0 IP rate, while five additional MU hurlers – RHP Victor Christal, LHP Brady Kehlenbrink, LHP Ian Lohse, RHP Seth McCartney and RHP Ben Smith – bring rates of 10.0 K’s per game or better into Tuesday’s game.
• LHP Ian Lohse leads the Tigers with a 3.3 K/BB ratio, to go along with his season average of 11.83 K/9.0 IP.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

• Mizzou enters the week with 74 hit-by-pitches as a team, a total that ranks third in the SEC and 33rd nationally.
• OF Kaden Peer has been plunked a team-high 16 times this spring, good for the top average (0.47) of HBPs in the SEC and the 23rd-best figure in the nation.
• Peer has been hit 24 times in 73 career contests, which leads all active Mizzou players.
• A total of 13 Mizzou players have been hit by a pitch this season, including four who have drawn at least eight free passes by being struck by a pitch — Peer, Peyton Basler (9), Mateo Serna (8) and Gehrig Goldbeck (8).

OFF AND RUNNING

• Missouri has bolted from the starting gate offensively, thanks at least in part to a consistent running game that has resulted in the Tigers swiping 57 bases in its first 39 games.
• Mizzou is 57-of-75 in stolen base attempts to date, including a streak of at least one steal in 11 consecutive games (Feb. 15-March 2).
• Mizzou’s 57 steals rank sixth in the SEC.
• OF Kaden Peer (11-for-12) and INF/OF Brock Daniels (7-for-9) have led the Tigers’ charge on the basepaths, combining to go 18-of-21 in steal attempts this season.
• In their Feb. 25 victory over Lindenwood, the Tigers went 6-for-6 in steal attempts, logging their first six-steal performance since Feb. 19, 2022 vs. Nicholls.
• In the Tigers’ 23 wins last season, MU baserunners were successful on 33-of-41 steal attempts.
• With their average of 1.46 steals-per-game, the Tigers are projected to steal 81 bases this spring, which would rank as the No. 5 total in program history.
• In all, 15 different Tigers have successfully swiped at least one base this season.

IN THE CLUTCH

• The Tigers have produced an average of 6.6 runs per contest over their first 39 games thanks in large part to a lineup that has received balanced production in the clutch.
• As a team, Missouri is batting .294 (123-for-419) with runners in scoring position, including .333 (19-for-57) with the bases loaded.
• INF Jackson Lovich has been the Tigers top performer in such situations, hitting .452 (19-for-42) this spring with runners in scoring position and 4-for-7 with the bases full.
• Lovich has also been Mizzou’s top two-out hitter, recording a team-best 15 two-out RBIs while hitting .324 in such instances.
• INF Peyton Basler has logged four hits with the bases loaded, and INF Cayden Nicoletto has hit .351 with runners in scoring position.
• OF Brady Picarelli has been the Tigers’ top hitter with runners aboard, batting .455 in such situations.

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