After being blown out Friday, Missouri baseball bounced again Saturday to beat Kentucky 9-4. The Tigers received an ideal begin from freshman Tony Neubeck to propel them to a win.
Neubeck pitched seven innings, giving up two runs on two hits and incomes his first SEC win. He began the season popping out of Missouri’s bullpen however slowly labored his approach into the beginning rotation. Saturday’s begin marked a profession excessive in innings pitched for Neubeck.
“It felt actually good,” Neubeck mentioned. “I do know the crew needed it, and I do know we had the power to do it. It actually helped with our hitters going and I received in a roll and it was good to do it. It is one thing totally different then I deliberate on doing this yr, and it feels good to have the ability to let it free and go for fairly a number of innings.”
Regardless of scoring three extra runs, the Tigers (20-12, 4-10 SEC) received an enormous enchancment from their offense. They managed to double their hits from 5 to 10. Missouri opened up the scoring within the backside of the second when Tre Morris hit an RBI single. Ross Lovich adopted with a second RBI single. A 3rd from Josh Day put Missouri up by three runs.
“That was type of the step again we needed to take,” coach Steve Bieser mentioned. “Not attempt to hit the large blow, we needed to shorten are swings up and be extra barrel correct. That was good to see that everybody took that strategy.”
The Wildcats (21-14, 5-9) tried to slowly chip away on the Tigers’ lead with runs within the third and fifth innings. An enormous seventh inning made certain there would not be a comeback try. Main off the seventh, Torin Montgomery received on base on a dropped third strike. Fox Leum instantly introduced him residence, crushing a ball over the right-field wall. Successful-by-pitch and a single put two runner’s on for Day.
Day got here by once more to carry each runners residence with a triple. The subsequent pitch received thrown away to permit Day to push Missouri’s result in seven. The Tigers wanted an enormous bounce-back efficiency after getting blown out Friday. They received one Saturday to pressure a rubber match.
“They perceive what’s at stake,” Bieser mentioned. “The one message I gave them was lets sleep fast and get again right here and win the collection.”