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COLUMBIA, Mo. – Despite another strong start from freshman Logan Lunceford and a late rally that nearly erased a five-run deficit, Missouri baseball fell to No. 2/4 Vanderbilt, 7-6, Thursday evening in the opening game of the two clubs’ Southeastern Conference series at Taylor Stadium.
Working against the SEC’s top offense in conference play, Lunceford (3-1) struck out eight batters and limited the Commodores to three runs on two hits over 5.0 innings. The right-hander combined with fellow freshman pitchers Daniel Wissler and Brock Lucas to fan 10 Vandy batters in the contest.
But Vanderbilt (25-5, 10-0 SEC) snapped a 1-1 tie in the fourth thanks to a big hit from one of its top freshmen, as Chris Maldonado singled home a pair of runs to hand the Commodores a 3-1 lead.
Mizzou’s Luke Mann paced the Tiger attack early, launching his ninth home run of the season to open the home half of the first, then driving in the second MU run with a one-out double to left-center in the fifth to pull the Tigers to within a single run.
But VU tacked on an unearned run in the sixth, then plated two more in the seventh and one in the eighth to build a 7-2 cushion.
Mizzou battled back in the bottom of the eighth, mounting a four-run rally on four hits to slice the margin to a single run once again. Hank Zeisler started the surge with a leadoff double, before Dylan Leach singled and Jackson Lovich brought in a run with a base hit.
Next, Ty Wilmsmeyer came through with his first home run of the season—a three-run blast that cleared the Mizzou bullpen in left field to make it a 7-6 game.
Vandy closer Nick Maldonado escaped further damage, stranding the potential tying run by inducing an inning-ending fly ball to left off the bat of Dalton Bargo.
With two out in the ninth, Leach doubled to deep left-center field, but was thrown out attempting to advance to third, securing Vandy’s 10th straight SEC victory and its 13th in a row overall.
The Tigers outhit the Commodores by a 9-8 margin, led by two-hit nights from Leach, Mann and Wilmsmeyer.
TIGER NOTEBOOK
- Missouri dropped to 4-26 all-time vs. Vanderbilt
- The Tigers lost for just the fourth time in 22 games this season in which they have out-hit the opposition
- Mann logged his team-leading 11th multi-hit game of the season and his sixth multi-RBI effort
- Mann also into a tie with Cody Ehlers for the No. 6 position on Mizzou’s career homer list with his 37th round-tripper as a Tiger; he needs one more to tie Griffin Moore in the No. 5 position on the chart
- Wilmsmeyer homered for the fourth time in his Mizzou career and the first time since May 19, 2022 at Georgia
- Lunceford dropped his first decision as a collegiate pitcher, but fanned at least eight batters for the fourth time in six career appearances
- Leach extended his hit streak to four straight games with his third multi-hit performance of the season
- The loss ended the Tigers’ five-game home win streak (since March 12) and marked just the second setback for Mizzou in 13 games at Taylor Stadium in 2023
- Mizzou fell to 17-2 when scoring at least six runs this season
UP NEXT
Mizzou and Vanderbilt will meet once again at Taylor Stadium for game two of the series Friday (April 7) evening at 6 p.m. Single-game tickets for Friday’s game, as well as all Mizzou baseball home games in 2023, can be purchased by calling 1-800-CAT-PAWS, or by visiting MUTigers.com/feature/BSBTix.
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