Baseball Set to Open SEC Series with No. 16 Oklahoma Thursday

COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri baseball welcomes a familiar foe to Taylor Stadium this weekend when No. 16 Oklahoma visits Columbia as a member of the Southeastern Conference for the first time.

The Tigers improved to 6-0 in midweek action with Tuesday’s 10-9 win over Missouri State, while OU also notched a non-conference victory over an in-state foe with its 11-1 rout of Oklahoma State in Stillwater.

Each of this weekend’s three contests will be streamed live by SEC Network+ with Max Thoma and former Tiger Dylan Kelly handling broadcast duties. The series will also be produced by the Tiger Radio Network for local broadcast on KTGR AM/FM and streamed via the Varsity Network app (by searching ‘Missouri’), with Tex Little and Matt Michaels on the call.

Mizzou baseball single-game tickets are on sale now through the Mizzou Athletics ticket office at 1-800-CAT-PAWS or by visiting MUTigers.com.

PROMOTIONS

• Thursday, April 17 – Happy Hour Beer Special ($2.99 draft beers from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.)
• Friday, April 18 – Mizzou Baseball Book Drive
• Saturday, April 19 – Easter Egg Hunt / Junior Tigers Day / Truman Squishmallow Giveaway

PITCHING PROBABLES

• Game 1 – Thursday, April 17 (7 p.m.) – LHP Brady Kehlenbrink (Mizzou) vs. LHP Cade Crossland (Oklahoma)
• Game 2 – Friday, April 18 (6 p.m.) – RHP Kaden Jacobi (Mizzou) vs. RHP Kyson Witherspoon (Oklahoma)
• Game 3 – Saturday, April 19 (2 p.m.) – TBD (Mizzou) vs. RHP Malachi Witherspoon (Oklahoma)

SERIES HISTORY

• Oklahoma brings a 154-110-1 series advantage into Thursday’s game.
• The Tigers hold a 59-53 edge over the Sooners in Columbia.
• OU claimed a 16-6 victory in the most recent meeting of the two programs on March 6, 2021 in Frisco, Texas.
• Mizzou’s last regular-season series win over OU came in 2008, when the Tigers took two of three games in Norman (April 18-20).

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 edging in-state rival Missouri State in non-conference action Tuesday evening in Columbia.
• 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); despite missing four recent games due to injury, the Overland Park, Kan., native has been red-hot at the plate, hitting .411 (37-for-90) with seven home runs and 32 RBIs, as well as hits in 18 of his last 24 games, since Feb. 28.
• Sophomore C/1B Mateo Serna has delivered a strong season-opening stretch, logging six home runs and 30 through the first half of the campaign.
• Sophomore OF Kaden Peer reached base safely in 21 consecutive games from Feb. 23-April 2; he leads the Tigers with 10 steals and 26 runs scored.
• Junior DH Gehrig Goldbeck has posted a .440 on-base percentage and five steals while holding down the leadoff spot in the Tigers’ batting order.
• Additionally, newcomers OF Pierre Seals, 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, ranking second on the squad in hitting (.313) through the first half of the season.
• Patterson has burst onto the scene in the last two weeks, hitting .350 with 14 RBIs in his last 12 contests since March 29.
• Seals has been red-hot over the same stretch, batting a team-leading .441 while slugging .735 with three home runs in his last 11 contests.
• On the mound, senior RHP Kaden Jacobi has recorded 36 punchouts in 34.1 innings as one of the Tigers’ weekend starters.
• Graduate LHP Ian Lohse is enjoying his best season as a Tiger after registering a team-high 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 16 appearances to date, while RHPs Xavier Lovett and PJ Green have combined for two wins and all three of the Tigers’ saves this spring.

QUICK HITS

• Missouri pitchers have fanned 299 batters in 295.1 innings this season.
• Mizzou has recorded five 15-hit performances to surpass its 2024 season total of three, as well as 19 double-digit hit totals, in just 36 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 10 steals, the Tigers’ running game has netted 55 steals in 71 attempts this season.
• MU ranks fourth in the SEC with a 1.53 steals-per-game average, which projects the Tigers to steal 84 bases over their 55-game regular-season slate; that total would represent the No. 3 season total in program history, trailing only the 2019 Tigers’ 101 steals and the 2011 club’s 94.
• Mizzou has recorded 21 sacrifice bunts this season, which rates as the second-best total in the SEC and ranks 59th nationally.
• Led by Jackson Lovich and Brock Daniels’ two triples, the Tigers rank second in the SEC with their 11 triples.
• The Tigers also rank third in the SEC and 30th nationally in HBPs with 69 on the season; Peer has been hit a team-leading 14 times this spring and 22 times for his career.
• Lovich has logged team-best totals of 13 multi-hit and 10 multi-RBI performances; the junior is hitting a team-best .450 (18-for-40) with runners in scoring position, including 4-of-7 with the bases loaded.
• RHP Ben Smith’s 16 mound appearances rank fifth 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 13 baserunners this season.

SCOUTING OKLAHOMA

• Under eighth-year head coach Skip Johnson, the Sooners enter the series 26-10 overall and 7-8 in their inaugural season of SEC competition.
• Oklahoma is ranked as high as No. 12 (Baseball America) in this week’s polling, with SEC series wins over South Carolina, Mississippi State and No. 17 Vanderbilt on its 2025 resume.
• The Sooners are hitting .284 as a club, led by OF Trey Gambill’s .337 average.
• OU leads the SEC in triples (12) and stolen bases (89), thanks in large part to C Easton Carmichael (10 SB, .545 SLG), the conference’s active leader in career triples.
• INF Dawson Willis paces the Sooners with 14 steals, which ranks third in the SEC.
• INF Jaxon Willits (.988 OPS) has been OU’s top power source, clubbing nine home runs and driving in 32 runs to date, while INF/OF Jason Walk (.523 SLG) ranks among the SEC’s leaders in doubles (11).
• On the hill, the Sooners have posted a 4.28 ERA over their first 36 contests.
• RHP Kyson Witherspoon (74 K’s in 52.0 IP) has been one of the SEC’s top hurlers, pacing the circuit with his 2.08 ERA, while notching six wins on the season to rank second in the league.
• The Sooners’ bullpen is anchored by one of the top closers in Division I baseball, with RHP Dylan Crooks bringing nine saves and a 1.31 ERA into the weekend.

LAST TIME WE MET

• Mizzou dropped its third game of the Frisco (Texas) College Baseball Classic, 16-6, against Oklahoma on March 6, 2021.
• The Tigers came out quick, scoring its six runs in the first three innings.
• MU put up a three-spot in the first inning behind lead-off hits from Mark Vierling and Brandt Belk, and four walks.
• The pitching was helped by Jacob Kush, who threw 2.1 innings of scoreless ball in relief of starter Seth Halvorsen.
• Oklahoma used a six-run sixth inning to break open a 6-6 deadlock. The Sooners claimed control behind five scoreless innings of relief work from Carson Carter.

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

• Mizzou enters the weekend with 69 hit-by-pitches as a team, a total that ranks third in the SEC and 30th nationally.
• OF Kaden Peer has been plunked a team-high 14 times this spring, good for the fifth-best total in the SEC.
• Peer has been hit 22 times in 70 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 (8), Mateo Serna (8) and Gehrig Goldbeck (8).

THROWING SMOKE

• Mizzou’s pitching staff posted a strong first half of the season in the strikeout department, logging 299 punchouts in 295.1 total innings.
• The Tigers’ 9.11 strikeouts per game average projects to 501 K’s for the regular season, which would be their top season total since 2019, when MU registered a program-record 559 strikeouts.
• 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 Thursday’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.

HOME COOKIN’

• The Tigers have found the conditions at Taylor Stadium much to their liking over their first 18 home games of the 2025 season.
• MU has hit .316 with 193 hits, 21 homers and 151 runs scored (8.4 rpg.) over its first 18 home games.
• INF Jackson Lovich leads the way with a .441 batting mark at Taylor this season, including at least one hit in 15 of the Tigers’ 18 home games.
• Lovich turned in a game to remember April 1 vs. UAPB, driving in eight runs – the most by a Tiger in seven years and just one shy of the program record of nine, shared by Jacob Priday and Brian Sharp.
• 1B/OF Cayden Nicoletto has been hot at home as well, boasting a .356 average in his 16 games at Taylor, including a pair of four-hit games and a grand slam.
• Nicoletto was one of six Tigers to hit better than .400 for the week of Feb. 24-March 2, three of whom posted four-hit performances or better (Cameron Benson and Brady Picarelli).

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 55 bases in its first 36 games.
• Mizzou is 55-of-71 in stolen base attempts to date, including a streak of at least one steal in 11 consecutive games (Feb. 15-March 2).
• Mizzou’s 55 steals rank fourth in the SEC.
• OF Kaden Peer (10-for-11) and INF/OF Brock Daniels (7-for-9) have led the Tigers’ charge on the basepaths, combining to go 17-of-20 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 1.57 steals-per-game, the Tigers are projected to steal 87 bases this spring, which would rank as the No. 3 season total in program history, trailing only the 2019 Tigers’ 101 steals and the 2011 club’s 94.
• In all, 15 different Tigers have successfully swiped at least one base this season.

IN THE CLUTCH

• The Tigers have produced an average of 6.8 runs per contest over their first 36 games thanks in large part to a lineup that has received balanced production in the clutch.
• As a team, Missouri is batting .298 (118-for-396) with runners in scoring position, including .327 (18-for-55) with the bases loaded.
• INF Jackson Lovich has been the Tigers top performer in such situations, hitting .450 (18-for-40) 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 14 two-out RBIs.
• 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 (10-for-22) in such situations.

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