'Microcosm Of Our Season': Immaturity Dooms Tigers In Season-Ending Loss To Alabama

HOOVER, Ala. - After going 3-27 in SEC play, few expected Missouri to do much of anything at the 2025 SEC Baseball Tournament. The Tigers put up more of a fight than many expected, holding a high-powered Alabama offense to four runs, but stranding 12 runners on base in a 4-1 season-ending loss.

"We are an immature baseball club," Missouri head coach Kerrick Jackson said. "I don't mean that disrespectfully, it's just the reality of what it is, and that showed itself today, where there were some opportunities that we had to put ourselves in a position to win the ball game, and we just weren't able to come up with the right hit or make the right play at the right time."

Missouri struck first, as catcher Mateo Serna hit a solo blast down the right field line to give the Tigers their first and only run of the game in the top of the fourth. Alabama took the lead in the bottom of the inning off of RBI singles from Justin Lebron and Kade Snell. From there, Missouri got runners into scoring position in each of the final five innings of the game.

It started in the fifth, where Kaden Peer hit a leadoff single and proceeded to steal second. From there, Chris Patterson popped up and Brock Daniels fouled out, eliminating any possibility of a sacrifice to advance the tying run. Jackson Lovich, the only Tigers' batter to record multiple hits besides Peer, went down swinging to end the frame, but came up empty every single time.

Serna drew a two-out walk in the sixth off Fay, and Tyler Macon followed it up with a single right up the middle, but Keegan Knutson then grounded out to Fay. A similar situation occurred in the seventh, as Brock Daniels was plunked with two outs, and Lovich advanced him to third with a single. Pierre Seals was struck out looking, halting the momentum again.

Alabama did what the Tigers couldn't in the bottom of the inning, bringing Kade Snell home from third base on a Will Hodo sac fly. The Crimson Tide stranded nine runners themselves, but showed an ability to bring guys home that the Tigers just did not possess.

"They had a plan, and they stuck to it," Lovich said. "We didn't. Simple as that."

The eighth brought a repeat of the previous two innings. Serna was plunked, Knutson advanced him to second with a single, and Peer flied out to leave the Tigers scoreless yet again. Meanwhile, Alabama got a fourth one off a home run from catcher Brady Neal, putting Missouri in a three-run hole.

For a moment, it looked like the Tigers could close the gap. Daniels singled with one out, Lovich was plunked, and Seals reached on a fielder's choice that advanced every runner thanks to an errant throw by Alabama first baseman Will Hodo. It was bases loaded, one out, and the season on the line for Jackson's squad.

Predictably, the outcome of the ninth was no different than the four innings that preceded it. Cayden Nicoletto lined out to first, capping off an 0-5 day, and Serna flied out to left field for the final out.

"This game today was a microcosm of our season," Jackson said. "This game was there for us if we wanted to have taken it, but we didn't want to take it, so ultimately, we ended up with a loss."

Missouri's season ends with a 16-39 record. Frustration was visible from Jackson and Lovich in the postgame press conference following the loss.

"I've been through a rebuild before, so I know what it looks like and I know it's not pretty," Jackson said. "Some of these guys in our locker room, they've never experienced any type of adversity ever. And so this is the first time they've experienced it. And when you're on this stage, and in this league, and everything is so visible with social media, and you've got all the negative experience and the doubt about what's going on, then that can weigh on these kids a little bit."

It's going to be a long offseason in Columbia for a program that hit rock bottom in just about every sense of the word this year. A lot of work will need to be done to whip a very young roster into shape for 2026, but Jackson hopes that the lessons learned from this year prove instrumental to future development.

"What I like about adversity is that it becomes great if you learn from it and move forward from it," Jackson said. "We're the biggest story for how bad we are this year, but I promise you, we'll be the biggest story for how good we're going to be next year."

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