Baseball Renews Rivalry with Jayhawks Tuesday Evening in Lawrence

COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri baseball continues a challenging stretch of its 2025 schedule with a non-conference road matchup against No. 23 Kansas Tuesday evening at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

Missouri holds a commanding 220-130-2 series edge over KU entering the 353rd meeting with their rivals from the west, including a 69-52 advantage over the Jayhawks on their home turf.

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

• TBA (Mizzou) vs. TBA (Kansas)

SERIES HISTORY

• Tuesday’s game will mark the 353rd meeting of the Tigers and Jayhawks.
• Mizzou holds a 220-130-2 all-time edge over KU.
• The Tigers have won 69 of the 121 games played in the series in Lawrence, but just two of the last eight contests at Hoglund Ballpark (dating back to 2010).
• Last season, the Tigers and Jayhawks split their home-and-home series, with Mizzou pulling out a 5-4 win in 10 innings in Lawrence (March 12), before KU stopped the Tigers’ four-game series win streak with a 4-3 victory in another 10-inning affair at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City (March 19).

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 13-30 start to the season after dropping all three of their SEC contests at No. 16 Alabama this past weekend.
• The Tigers return four position starters from last season, led by junior INF 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 .387 (43-for-111) with seven home runs and 34 RBIs, as well as hits in 24 of his last 31 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, 26 RBIs and 29 runs scored.
• Additionally, newcomers OF Pierre Seals, DH Gehrig Goldbeck, OF Cameron Benson, INF Peyton Basler, INF Keegan Knutson, OF Tyler Macon, INF 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 .286 with five homers and 20 RBIs through the first 43 games of the season.
• Patterson has burst onto the scene in the last four weeks, driving in 15 runs in his last 19 contests since March 29.
• Seals has been red-hot over the same stretch, batting a team-leading .380 while slugging .580 with three home runs in his last 17 contests.
• Knutson has made 30 starts on the Tigers’ infield, logging a team-best seven doubles to date.
• On the mound, senior RHP Kaden Jacobi has recorded a team-best 42 punchouts in 40.1 innings while filling a number of roles on the Tigers’ pitching staff.
• Graduate LHP Ian Lohse is enjoying his best season as a Tiger after registering 40 strikeouts in just 30.2 innings of work; this past weekend, he returned to action following a four-week layoff due to injury.
• LHP Kadden Drew and redshirt freshman LHP Wil Libbert have combined for five mound victories and 66 strikeouts over their 71.2 total innings thus far.
• RHP Ben Smith has logged 11 scoreless outings in a team-high 19 appearances, while RHPs Xavier Lovett and PJ Green have combined for all three of the Tigers’ saves this spring.

QUICK HITS

• Missouri pitching has fanned 346 batters in 346.1 innings this season, marking the 29th time in the last 30 years the Tigers have topped the 300-K plateau.
• Mizzou has recorded five 15-hit performances to surpass its 2024 season total of three, as well as 20 double-digit hit totals, in 43 contests this spring.
• Ian Lohse has four career appearances against Kansas to his credit; the graduate lefty has fanned six hitters and allowed just one run over 5.0 innings.
• Jackson Lovich brings the top career batting record against KU into Tuesday’s game, logging a .333 average over his three outings vs. the Jayhawks.
• Led by Kaden Peer with 11 steals, the Tigers’ running game has netted 60 steals in 80 attempts.
• Peer has been hit by 17 pitches this season, which is tied for fourth in the SEC.
• MU ranks fifth in the SEC with a 1.40 steals-per-game average, which projects the Tigers to steal 77 bases over their 55-game slate; that total would represent the No. 7 season total in program history.
• Mizzou has recorded 23 sacrifice bunts this season, which rates as the second-best total in the SEC and ranks 68th nationally.
• Led by Lovich and Brock Daniels’ two triples, the Tigers rank second in the SEC with their 13 triples.
• The Tigers also rank third in the SEC and 27th nationally in HBPs with 81 on the season; Peer has been hit a team-leading 17 times this spring and 25 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 .432 (19-for-44) with runners in scoring position, including 4-of-7 with the bases loaded.
• Ben Smith’s 19 mound appearances are tied for sixth in the SEC.
• Mizzou’s catching combination of Jedier Hernandez and Mateo Serna has already teamed up to nail 15 baserunners this season, matching their 2024 season total.

SCOUTING KANSAS

• Under third-year head coach Dan Fitzgerald, the Jayhawks are off to a 35-10 start to the season, checking in at No. 23 in this week’s NCBWA poll.
• Kansas enters Tuesday’s contest batting .297 as a team, which ranks fourth in the Big 12 Conference.
• The Jayhawks lead the Big 12 in home runs (84), ranking ninth in the nation, led by INF/OF Jackson Hauge’s 17 round-trippers.
• INF Brady Ballinger paces KU with his .374 batting average, 57 runs scored, 61 hits, 47 walks and 15 doubles.
• INF/OF Brady Counsell has been a force in the Jayhawks batting order as well, totaling 10 homers, 46 RBIs and 10 doubles through the first 45 games of the season.
• KU leads the Big 12 in scoring (8.7 runs per game), slugging (.531) and walks (294), ranking fourth in the country in the latter category.
• On the mound, KU has compiled a 4.66 team ERA and five shutouts on the season.
• RHP Dominic Voegele and RHP Cooper Moore lead the Jayhawks’ rotation; Voegele has a team-leading six mound victories and 60 strikeouts in 66.2 innings to date, while Moore has gone 5-1 with a 3.36 ERA in 10 total appearances.
• RHP Alex Breckheimer leads the Jayhawks with five saves in a team-best 23 relief appearances.

LAST TIME WE MET

• Despite battling back from a two-run deficit to take Kansas to extra innings for the second time in eight days, Mizzou dropped a 4-3 decision to the Jayhawks, who scratched out the game-winning run in the top of the 10th inning to salvage a season split with the Tigers at Kauffman Stadium (March 19, 2024).
• Collier Cranford’s sacrifice fly brought in pinch runner Tyler Gerety for the decisive run, and Hunter Cranton worked a scoreless home half to secure the win for KU.
• The setback for the Tigers overshadowed a comeback that saw MU score two times in the home half of the fifth to knot the score at 3-3.
• After a leadoff bunt single and a Jayhawks error produced the first Mizzou run of the fifth, Jackson Lovich completed the comeback, unloading on a full-count offering for his sixth home run of the season.
• From there, Brock Lucas kept the Jayhawks in check, retiring 13 straight batters over 4 1/3 hitless innings of relief.

NON-CONFERENCE DOMINANCE

• Mizzou dropped to 13-9 against non-conference opponents with its 11-0 loss to Missouri State last Tuesday.
• With just two 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 65-26 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 106 more non-conference games than it has lost (192-86).
• 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 has been proficient in racking up strikeouts this spring, logging 346 punchouts in 346.1 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, James Vaughn leads the Tigers with his 12.83 K/9.0 IP rate, while five additional MU hurlers – Victor Christal, Brady Kehlenbrink, Ian Lohse, Seth McCartney and Ben Smith – bring rates of 10.0 K’s per game or better into Tuesday’s game.
• Ian Lohse leads the Tigers with a 3.3 K/BB ratio, to go along with his season average of 11.74 K/9.0 IP.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

• Mizzou enters the week with 82 hit-by-pitches as a team, a total that ranks third in the SEC and 30th nationally.
• Kaden Peer has been plunked a team-high 17 times this spring, good for No. 2 average (0.45) of HBPs in the SEC and the 37th-best figure in the nation.
• Peer has been hit 25 times in 77 career contests, which leads all active Mizzou players.
• A total of 13 Mizzou players have been hit by a pitch this season, including five who have drawn at least eight free passes by being struck by a pitch — Peer (17), Peyton Basler (10), Gehrig Goldbeck (9), Mateo Serna (9) and Brock Daniels (8).

MILESTONE WATCH

• Several Tigers have reached or are approaching career milestones this season, most recently with INF Jackson Lovich topping the 100-hit plateau on April 12 at Florida.
• Lovich, who needs just one more home run to reach the 20-homer milestone for his career, became the second Tiger to top the 100-hit mark this season after Cameron Benson achieved the feat on April 6 at Arkansas.
• Pierre Seals enters Tuesday’s game just four hits away from the 100-mark for his Division I career.
• On the mound, Ian Lohse is just five strikeouts away from the 150-mark for his career, while both Tony Neubeck (96) and Brock Lucas (94) are within striking distance of joining the 100-K club for their Mizzou career.

IN THE CLUTCH

• The Tigers have produced an average of 6.2 runs per contest over their first 43 games thanks in large part to a lineup that has received balanced production in the clutch.
• As a team, Missouri is batting .288 (126-for-437) with runners in scoring position, including .333 (20-for-60) with the bases loaded.
• Jackson Lovich has been the Tigers top performer in such situations, hitting .432 (19-for-44) 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.
• Peyton Basler has logged four hits with the bases loaded, and Cayden Nicoletto has hit .351 with runners in scoring position.
• Brady Picarelli has been the Tigers’ top hitter with runners aboard, batting .440 in such situations.

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