Missouri Baseball's Offense Silent in Loss to No. 7 Vanderbilt
The Missouri baseball team fell to Vanderbilt 3-1 on Thursday evening.
The Tigers are off to a rough start to the season, but even though they've now lost the last three games, Mizzou kept it close with the Commodores, who are one of the best teams in the country year after year. That said, they stayed in it not by scoring runs, but rather with stout defense and commendable pitching by Carter Rustad. The same respects go for Vanderbilt's Greysen Carter as this truly was a pitchers' duel for a good chunk of the match.
Both pitchers couldn't have started the game much better as each of them struck two batters out in the first inning. Carter struck out the side in the second inning while Rustad had one Commodore swinging at air. Rustad allowed his first two hits in the second, but Mizzou's defense made its first great play of the game when right fielder Jackson Beaman slid for a stellar foul ball catch to end the inning.
Vanderbilt scored the first run of the evening in the third inning after an RBI single, but Rustad kept his composure and struck out the next batter for the final out. In the fourth, Rustad got the first batter swinging at air and the defense took care of the rest with a double play.
Carter was absolutely dominant throughout the night as Mizzou recorded its first hit of the game in the fifth inning when catcher Jedier Hernandez doubled down the left field line with one out. But it would be all for none as the next two Tigers grounded out.
Rustad had a rough start to the fifth inning as he hit third baseman Davis Diaz with a pitch that got the first batter on base. The Commodores successful sacrifice bunt placed Diaz on second and then he went to third on a passed ball. Center fielder RJ Austin's groundout to shortstop gave Diaz enough time to make the score 2-0. Fortunately, the defense made another great play after Kaden Peer's diving SportsCenter-top-10-esque catch resulted in the third out.
Vanderbilt's offense rode the new momentum in the sixth as a single by second baseman Jayden Davis brought first basemen Matt Ossenfort, who doubled to open the inning, home to make the score 3-0. Rustad finished the inning, but that would be the end of his night. In six innings, Rustad allowed three runs on eight hits while throwing five strikeouts and one HBP. Additionally, he threw 54 strikes out of 71 total pitches.
On the other side of the ball, Mizzou earned its second hit of the game from a single by Jeric Curtis in the seventh inning. The left fielder stole second shortly after, but the inning would eventually end with him there.
Carter notched career-highs with 8.1 innings played and 11 strikeouts. Additionally, he allowed zero runs and three hits on 113 pitches (71 strikes).
Beaman scored the Tigers' first run of the game off of a passed ball in the ninth inning with the closer in, but it was obviously too little too late.
To summarize the game in one sentence: Missouri's commendable pitching and defense couldn't make up for the ice cold bats.
