Mizzou Baseball Drops Series-Opener Against Evansville

Coming off an offensive show in their midweek home-opener against Lindenwood, the Missouri Tigers came out a little differently in their first home series of the year.

The Tigers returned back to their offensive drought and only had a bright spot in one of the innings. This lead to the a 7-6 loss to the Evansville Purple Aces.

They had a lot to prove against the 1-6 Purple Aces. With two high-scoring games before, they needed to show that they could keep the offense going against their non-conference foes. But this didn't exactly work in the Tigers favor.

After a homer in the first inning from first baseman Mateo Serna, the Tigers offense struggled to put a string of hits together.

That is until the floodgates broke open in the fourth inning.

Mizzou went with the small ball tactic to come back from the small deficit. They brought one in by a fielder's choice, two singles and a sacrifice fly.

The Tigers couldn't seem to get difference-making runs across the plate, however. Their only runs came in the first, fourth and eighth innings. The eighth inning run brought them to a one run difference, but that was the best they could do.

Missouri starter Ian Lohse did just enough to give the Tigers a chance for a series-opening win. He went for five innings, tied for his longest outing of the year. He gave up just three runs on six hits and struck out six batters. They were scattered throughout multiple innings.

It would appear that head coach Kerrick Jackson has settled upon his main middle-relief pitcher. Despite some touchy outings, Jackson keeps going back to James Vaughn to pitch after the starter comes out.

Against Evansville, Vaughn had a stellar first inning. He sent the three batters he faced back down in order, punching out one. But, as has become common with Vaughn, he then ran into trouble in his second inning. He let one run in and left the bases loaded.

Left-hand reliever Nic Smith let in two of Vaughn's runs, but left two on to avoid worse damage. After giving up a triple, Nic gave up a run of his own. Jackson opted for the other Smith to hold down the fort. Right-hander Ben Smith only gave up two hits to the Purple Aces in 1 1/3 innings.

Missouri moves to 4-5 on the season and Evansville moved to 2-6. The Tigers will continue their series against Evansville with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 1 at 1 p.m.

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