ZooRahBlog

Aaron Crow to the Nationals

Aaron Crow was just selected by the Washington Nationals with the 9th selection in the first round of the MLB amateur draft.  Congratulations Aaron!

Mizzou Mentally Chokes

Missouri, for the second time in a row, blew a game that would have given them a spot in the Big XII championship game in baseball.  As it sits, Mizzou still is the only program to have NEVER won a Big XII championship in ANY sport.  Ever!  x and y have their stories here.

In 3 games, Mizzou scored 6 runs and committed 8 errors.  On Thursday they entered the 9th inning with OU with a 1 run lead.  They left with a loss after x errors.  Yesterday in the fateful 5th inning, Ian Berger committed two errors after which he immediately gave up a 3-run HR, the final nail in the Tiger's coffin.

This is a trend, unfortunately.  They went 14-0, then went x and y, and finished 8-2.  They went 1-2 in the Big XII.  They blew x 9th inning leads during the regular season and once in the tournament.   They won y games after leading in the 9th.

Mentally this is a very fragile Tiger team that made a lot of mistakes at critical times.  I hope that whatever is giving them the glitches clears up this week before regional play begins.

Big XII Tournament Video and Audio Feed

The Big XII baseball tournament's video and audio feeds for the Mizzou/Texas game are absolutely horrible.  Both feeds are choppier than Lake Superior in November, and it's difficult to follow the action.  You'd think that they would have figured out by now how to deliver fans a decent product.  Yes, I know it's free of charge, and that may have something to do with it.  But I was expecting something more.

Update:  Tigers win in 10, 3-2!  After losing 5 straight, the Tigers are now 8-2 in their last 10, arguably the most important stretch of the year. 

But Tiger fans depending on the online video and audio provided for free by the Big XII did not get to see the excitement.  With one on and one out in the 10th, the video feed quit and wouldn't come back.  Others had problems too, so this one is on CSTV - the producer of the feed - and the Big XII.

Mizzou Sweeps Nebraska

Mizzou got its first sweep of the Huskers since 1996 and only the third Sunday win in conference play.  The middle of the Big XII season didn't go as well as hoped, but the Tigers had bookend sweeps against Baylor and NU. 

The pitching has been solid of late and Mizzou's offense has woken up, scoring 37 runs against a NU solid staff.  Now it's time for the Big XII tournament, and I like Mizzou's chances. 

Kudos to the 8,091 who showed up to watch Mizzou sweep the Huskers.

Have the Real Tigers Stood Up?

Nebraska pitcher Thad Weber:

"It was just a lack of commitment, lack of focus," said starting pitcher Thad Weber, who surrendered eight runs in 1²/₃ innings. "It was embarrassing. There's no way, with the arms we have, that should ever happen."

Give credit where credit is due, Mr Weber.  Your butts got whupped, as bad as we whupped your football team's ass back in October. 

Since their 14-game winning streak, when they were #2 in the nation according to some publications and stood at 19-2, the Tiger offense has been Jekyll and Hyde and the Tiger bullpen had all but hidden.  The latter still has its moments, but the Tiger bats have come alive over the past three games.  Perhaps the Tiger bats have finally woken up, and what awakened the giant was the red horde from up north.

What happens tomorrow is for pure bragging rights and momentum going into the Big XII tournament.  A Tiger sweep gives them a lot of momentum and confidence, confidence that they not only can win the Big XII tournament, but do well in the regionals.  The Mizzou hitters have gotten back to what they do so well when they hit... they wear down the opposing pitchers.  And while their bullpen has been China-shaky, the starting pitching has been great, and the Tigers have three solid starters, 4 if Kyle Gibson doesn't stay as the Tiger closer.  And one of those four is the best college pitcher in the nation this year.  If the bats can say hot, I like their chances.

Update:  a fella calling himself Trripleplay at Tigerboard remarks:

What I like about this offensive surge is that it's not coming against Toledo State or even KUand KSU. This is against one of the best pitching staffs in the Big XII. Nebraska's pitching is legit, and the Tigers are knocking them around.

This team is getting it's groove back, and just in time for the post-season.

Tigers Beat Creighton

Although Missouri has struggled since winning 14 in a row earlier this season, going 12-14 since that run coming into yesterday's game, the Tigers pinned a loss on the Creighton Blue Jays last night. Pinch hitter Steve Gray hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to win the game.  Guess who Gray hit the homer off of.  Yes, he hit it off of Pat Venditte, the ambidextrous pitcher who stung my hand over 15 years ago, and the only Blue Jay I wanted to see have success off of the Tigers.

Venditte inherited a 4-1 lead when he came in to start the eighth inning. He gave up a two-out, two-run homer to Trevor Coleman that pulled the Tigers within 4-3, but closed the eighth with his third strikeout of the inning. Dan Pietroburgo opened the Missouri ninth by reaching first base on third baseman Steve Winkelmann's throwing error, and pinch-runner Kurt Calvert took second on a sacrifice.

...Venditte fell behind the left-handed-hitting Gray three balls and one strike before delivering the fateful pitch.

"I got behind in the count and had to throw a strike, and he got good metal on it," Venditte said. "I'm not doing my job right now. My team counts on me to close down ballgames, and I'm not doing that. Something's got to change."

It marked Venditte's second rough outing. He inherited a 7-1 lead in the second game of a Saturday doubleheader at Southern Illinois and surrendered two homers, the first a grand slam in the eighth and the second a two-out blast that tied the game. Creighton went on to win 9-8 in 10 innings.

Not that I'm disappointed overall.  Mizzou needed this win, badly.  But I feel for Venditte.

Mizzou Baseball is in a Slump

After roaring out to a 19-2 lead, Mizzou has come back to earth with a thump.  In the last two weeks they won 1 of 2 against Minnesota on March 25th and 26th.  They took a 5-0 lead in the 1st inning in the second game against the Gophers but lost 12-5, a loss that broke a 14 game winning streak.  I thought, "tough loss but no biggie.  It's a midweek out-of-conference game.  Surely they'll bounce back against Texas Tech." 

But they only took 1 of 3 against Texas Tech a week ago last weekend, lost a midweek game against Western Illinois on April 2nd (to bring WIU to 4-14 on the year), beat division 2 Lincoln University on April 3rd, and  took 1 of 3 at home against Okie State this past weekend. 

The Texas Tech on March 28-30 series showed what the Tigers have been made of during this slump: one dominant starting pitcher (Aaron Crow, the Friday night pitcher), two solid starting pitchers (Ian Berger and Kyle Gibson), a line-up that is very weak at the bottom of the order, and a shaky bullpen.  In that series Mizzou's bullpen had trouble getting anyone out and, in the series finale, gave up 11 runs in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings.  They had a 2 run lead in the bottom of the 9th and couldn't hold it, losing 15-11.

The lone bright spot has been Aaron Crow, who continues to make D 1 hitters look silly.  After Friday's game he is 6-0 on the season with an ERA of 0.69 and 0.00 in Big XII play.  He also ran his scoreless innings streak to 42 and 2/3 and has a 0.9 WHIP and a strikeout to walk (K to W) ratio of 6.09.

Ian Berger had his first loss of the season, losing to Okie State 6-2.  Berger, the Saturday starter, is 3-1 on the season but still sports a 0.81 ERA and has a 0.79 WHIP and a K to W ratio of 4.  Kyle Gibson, the Sunday starter as of Saturday's game had a 2.84 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP, and a 4.17 K to W ratio.  The rest of the staff has a 2.3 K to W ratio and a 1.7 WHIP.

While the top of the lineup is solid, the bottom of the lineup has been very weak for the Tigers.  In fact, the Friday night lineup sported a 0.247 hitter in the 5th spot, a 0.273 hitter in the 7th spot, a 0.190 hitter in the 8th spot, and a 0.187 hitter in the 9th spot.  If you can limit the damage done by the top of the order, so much the better.

The recipe to beat Mizzou is this:  throw strikes and limit the damage done by the top of the order, make the starters work, and get into the bullpen. 

Tiger Pitching! Oh my!

The Tigers finished a three game sweep of the formerly #14 Baylor Bears by winning 12-2 in a run-rule shortened game.  Check out the Tiger pitching stats from the weekend:
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Player                 ERA   W-L   APP  GS  CG SHO/CBO SV    IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO

43 Crow, Aaron......  0.00   1-0     1   1   1   1/0    0   9.0   3   0   0   3  10
41 Berger, Ian......  0.00   1-0     1   1   0   0/1    0   7.0   1   0   0   3   8
44 Gibson, Kyle.....  0.00   1-0     1   1   1   0/0    0   7.0   4   2   0   2   9
46 Tepesch, Nick....  0.00   0-0     1   0   0   0/1    1   2.0   0   0   0   0   1

Totals..............  0.00   3-0     3   3   2   2/1    1  25.0   8   2   0   8  28
Opponents...........  5.56   0-3     3   3   0   0/0    0  22.2  26  22  14  13  18

PB - Team (0), Opp (1).
-------------------------------------
Yes, put that as a 0.00 ERA for the weekend with two complete games.  This week Mizzou
plays Minnesota up at da dome.  I might have to haul myself up there to watch this team
put the Gophers in a hole.

Tigers 7, Baylor 0

Aaron Crow struggled early in the game, but was able to keep the Bears away from home plate with a little help from his friends.  Crow ended up pitching a complete game, shutting out the Bears on three hits and three walks.  He also struck out 10 Bears.

Kudos to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for the lengthy article on the team.  I know resources are scarce and Kansas-City area basketball teams are doing well, but could we have a mention of the baseball team's win over an excellent Big XII opponent in the Kansas City Star?

Tigers Take All 4 From Toledo

The Tigers beat Toledo in the second game of a doubleheader, 11-6, to take all 4 in the weekend series against the Rockets.  Next up are the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State.