COLUMBIA, Mo. – Kansas scored a pair of eighth-inning runs to pull out a 6-5 victory over University of Missouri baseball Tuesday evening at Taylor Stadium. The Jayhawks overcame a 5-3, sixth-inning deficit by plating three unanswered runs, taking the lead for good on Sawyer Smith’s infield single with two out in the decisive eighth inning.
The Tigers (13-35) wiped out an early 3-0 deficit after KU’s Jackson Hauge put the visitors in front with a three-run homer in the first inning. Mizzou scored in three consecutive innings to establish a 5-3 advantage in the fifth. Mizzou freshman factored prominently in the Tigers’ comeback, as Tyler Macon tripled with two out in the third, then trotted home on a wild pitch to put MU on the board.
After home runs by Brock Daniels and Jackson Lovich evened the score at 3-3 in the fourth, Chris Patterson – another Mizzou rookie – put the home club on top with the first of his two doubles in the game with one out in the fifth. Keegan Knutson followed with an RBI-single to left-center, handing the Tigers a two-run lead.
Mizzou’s bullpen, which turned in seven strong innings of relief, made the lead stand through the seventh, despite a one-out solo shot from Dariel Osoria that cut the margin in half in the sixth. Freshman Victor Christal logged his best outing as a Tiger, holding the Jayhawks hitless over two innings, allowing just a two-out walk in the fifth. Fellow freshman PJ Green also delivered a scoreless inning of relief, as did Kaden Jacobi and Ian Lohse out of the MU bullpen. In all, the Tigers relief corps yielded just three runs on three hits over its combined 7.0 frames.
But Kansas (37-13) mounted the game’s critical rally with the help of three bases-on-balls in the eighth. With one out, Tommy Barth’s sacrifice fly to deep center gave Hauge plenty of time to score the equalizing run, setting up Smith’s go-ahead infield single that scored a hard-charging T.J. Williams from second base, putting the Jayhawks on top, 6-5.
KU, which used a total of eight pitchers in the contest, received a strong finish from its bullpen, as Eric Lin (3-2) and Alex Breckheimer combined on 4.0 shutout innings, recording seven of the Jayhawks’ 14 strikeouts on the night. Lin struck out four and worked out of a seventh-inning jam, before Breckheimer retired six of the seven batters he faced to lock up his sixth save of the season.
Patterson and Daniels led Mizzou’s 10-hit attack with two-hit nights, while Lovich recorded his team-leading ninth home run of the season and eight of MU’s nine position starters registered at least one hit in the game.
TIGER NOTEBOOK
- The Tigers met the Jayhawks for the 354th time Tuesday, with MU still holding a 220-132-2 all-time series lead.
- Lovich extended his reached base streak to 18-straight games with his fourth-inning home run – the 20th of his Mizzou career.
- Daniels logged his ninth multi-hit game of the campaign.
- Christal turned in a career-best two innings of relief, retiring six of the seven batters he faced.
- RHP Josh McDevitt made his first start on the mound for the Tigers, allowing three runs on four hits over the first two innings.
- Patterson’s two doubles give him a team-leading eight on the season; he became just the second Tiger (along with Lovich vs. UAPB on April 1) to record two doubles in a contest this spring.
UP NEXT
Mizzou embarks on its final Southeastern Conference road trip of the season this weekend, as the Tigers will open a three-game series with a 6 p.m. contest against Texas A&M Friday evening at Blue Bell Park in Bryan-College Station, Texas.
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