Rustad’s Relief Helps Missouri Baseball Beat South Carolina, 8-3

Carter Rustad knew he was supposed to pitch on Saturday; he just didn’t expect it to be so early. Nineteen pitches into Saturday’s game, Missouri’s starter, Javyn Pimental, walked off the mound with an elbow issue, and Rustad (6-6, 5.32 ERA) knew he was the next man up. Even worse for Rustad, Pimental had left the bases loaded, leaving a difficult situation for him to handle.

He was given just a few minutes to warm up before being sent in to clean up the mess. The result? He got out of the jam quickly on a strikeout and a double play. Then, he retired twelve of the next thirteen batters he faced, putting four innings’ worth of zeroes on the scoreboard.

Coach Kerrick Jackson said his gameplan was always to use Rustad after Pimental’s day was over, though neither he nor anyone thought his day would end in the first inning.

“[Rustad] was going to be the first guy that we were going to go to today,” he said. “So when [the early exit] happened, his mind was already there. Unfortunately, just earlier than we anticipated.”

By the seventh, the Gamecock offense had begun to wake up, tagging Rustad for three runs. However, Missouri’s offense had left South Carolina in the dust by then, scoring eight runs to put MU up by five. Brock Lucas took over in the eighth and threw two scoreless innings to seal the victory for the Tigers.

Coach Jackson said that Missouri (21-17, 7-16 SEC) appeared Saturday as an entirely different team than the one which lost Friday’s game 10-2.

“What they did last night, I don’t know what worked for them to put them in the mindset that they were in today, but you saw two completely different teams [on Friday and Saturday,]” said Jackson.

Missouri’s offense showed up early and often, starting the first inning with a four-run base-hit brouhaha. Brock Daniels led off with a double which just barely eluded the glove of Carolina third baseman Gavin Casas, and then three of the next four Tigers singled.

Another single, by Drew Culbertson, scored Jackson Lovich from second for the fourth of four runs.

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They tacked on three runs in the next three innings through— you guessed it! Four more singles. Eight of MU’s 12 hits were singles. Small-ball lovers everywhere rejoiced.

Culbertson, in particular, had an impressive game. Twice in the game, the Gamecock coaches ordered their pitcher to intentionally walk Matt Garcia in favor of Drew Culbertson with men on base. On both of those occasions, Culbertson smacked RBI singles instead of going out easily.

In the type of complete performance that Coach Jackson has been reaching towards all year, Missouri showed out on defense with some web gems across the diamond. Matt Garcia and Justin Colon both turned hard-hit grounders into impressive jump-throw putouts, and Jackson Lovich, as if he hadn’t impressed enough with his two-RBI triple, dove for an impressive catch in center field.

Meanwhile, the Gamecocks failed to impress on defense, committing two costly errors. A misplay of a fly ball off the wall by left fielder Kennedy Jones let Brock Daniels score to start off the four-run first. Later in the third, third baseman Gavin Casas made a throw that was way off of first, allowing Mateo Serna to advance to third and load the bases.

That inning then took a turn for the worse, and thus discounted the game from being a “complete” performance. Drew Culbertson singled to score Serna from third, but the other two runners were derailed by baserunning miscues. Jeric Curtis, who was on second, rounded third, bound for home plate, but then changed his mind and instead retreated to third. Matt Garcia had also decided to head to third, and by the time he realized it was occupied, he had already been tagged out.

Indeed, Missouri pitched well, hit well, and defended well, but their only mistakes came on the basepaths.

Jackson said the mistake was indicative of faults he has seen all year.

“It worries me as much as us being inconsistent all year worries me. And that falls under the category of playing good baseball,” he said. “It’s just baseball IQ and understanding the situations.”

Norm Makes Appearance

Many Missouri baseball alumni showed out for Alumni Day, including legendary MU basketball coach Norm Stewart, who was a member of the 1954 College World Series championship team.

Coach Kerrick Jackson said that his ultimate goal at Missouri is to achieve success at the level that Stewart did. The Missouri native, 89, won the Big Eight tournament six times and made the Elite Eight three times. Stewart has been in the news lately, as he was inducted into the Hall of Famous Missourians in Jefferson City on Wednesday.

“Being able to attempt to emulate what he did over that time is always the ultimate goal,” said Jackson. “And he did it for a long period of time and kind of set a standard in the precedent of what Mizzou athletics is supposed to be about.”