Mizzou Baseball Takes Game 1 of Doubleheader Against Evansville

The Missouri Tigers had quite the opposite start from their series-opener against the Evansville Purple Aces, but the rest of the game went quite like the first.

A hot start fueled the Tigers to their 6-2 win over the Purple Aces. Mizzou put up early runs and added on a couple late insurance runs to secure their win. The Tigers pitching secured the game with a combined nine strikeouts.

The starter for Evansville seemed to struggle with control out of the gate. The right-hand pitcher Owen Byberg walked two of the first three batters, gave up back-to-back singles and a sacrifice fly. A double from Mateo Serna in the second inning added one more. This gave Mizzou an early four-run lead to work with.

It ended up being very helpful for the Tigers, since the offense fell off a bit. But found a groove in the seventh inning to bring in two more in the seventh inning, but it was helped by Evansville. The Purple Aces committed an error in the outfield that allowed Gehrig Goldbeck to score.

The difference in the game was the start made by redshirt freshman Wil Libbert. It was the left-hander's best start of his career so far. He tossed 5 1/3 innings with seven punchouts and only gave up two runs to the Purple Aces.

Freshman right-hand reliever PJ Green got the opportunity to hold the game together for the Tigers and did just that. He tossed three scoreless innings against the Purple Aces and struck out two.

Missouri moves to 5-5 on the season and Evansville moved to 2-7. The Tigers will continue their doubleheader 45 minutes after the final out, which would be at 4:30 p.m.

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