No. 7 Texas Cruises to Run-Rule Win Over Mizzou Baseball

Despite late runs, the Tigers were unable to come back from a seven-run third in Longhorns' run-rule victory, keeping the team winless in conference play.

The stands at Mizzou Baseball's Taylor Stadium | Mizzou Athletics

For each of the first three innings, the Texas Longhorns took advantage of the 30 mph winds to send a ball out of the park. The wind did not die down and the runs did not stop there.

The Missouri Tigers lost their seventh-straight SEC game, this one to the Longhorns. Texas took a 15-4 victory in just seven innings.

Mizzou starter Ian Lohse left the game with the trainer with zero outs in the third inning. He completed just two inning and gave up the three home runs for four runs. Those were the only three hits of his outing. Right-hand reliever Seth McCartney took over to finish the third inning with two runners on from Lohse.

The first non-homer run came across two batters later on an error by McCartney. Seven runs came in during the third, one of them being walked in. He returned back to the mound in the fourth inning and gave up the fourth home run of the game to make it 12-0. The Longhorns already had enough runs to earn a run-rule with three innings to go.

Reliever Ben Smith entered with zero outs in the fourth and quickly closed the inning with a 1-2-3 sequence, just the second of the game. He was immediately removed after the inning for right-hander Josh Kirchhoff in the fifth.

Kirchhoff gave up the fifth home run of the game to make it a 15-0 game in the fifth. This was Texas center fielder Will Gasparino's second homer of the game and it was done in back-to-back innings. It was his third inning in a row in which he brought runs across.

The Tigers earned their first hit of the game in the bottom of the fourth on a Keegan Knutson single and Tyler Macon followed it with another single. Mizzou wasn't able to make anything of it, however.

They finally got runs across in the sixth. The first crossed on an RBI groundout from first baseman Mateo Serna. Another run was added on thanks to Brady Picarelli singling in Knutson. The Tigers came close to breaking up the run-rule in the bottom of the sixth after a bases-clearing with two on from center fielder Kaden Peer.

Usual Mizzou first baseman Cayden Nicoletto took the mound in the sixth inning and earned a strikeout for the Tigers. He put up one of the two scoreless inning of the game for Mizzou. Nicoletto had pitching experience at his previous school, but has not pitched for the Tigers this year.

Mizzou drops to 9-15 on the season and 0-7 in the SEC, while Texas improves to 21-3 and 6-1 in SEC. The Tigers will take the field for games 2 and 3 of the series at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. The series was originally scheduled for games on both Saturday and Sunday, but there is now a doubleheader scheduled for Saturday due to inclement weather.