Baseball Rallies From Seven-Run Deficit to Edge Ole Miss

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Facing a seven-run deficit in a crucial Southeastern Conference series opener against defending national champion Ole Miss, Missouri homered four times over the final three innings to score nine unanswered runs and pull out an 11-9 victory over the Rebels Thursday evening at Taylor Stadium.

Matt Garcia hit a two-out, two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth inning to hand Mizzou its first lead of the night, and Austin Troesser (4-3) completed his second-straight scoreless inning to close out the win—the Tigers’ first series opening victory in conference play since their March 17 win over Tennessee to open the SEC season.

Garcia’s second game-winning hit in a Mizzou SEC victory came after Luke Mann belted a pair of solo homers in back-to-back innings to help spark an offense that produced just four hits over the game’s first five innings.

With the Tigers trailing 9-2 on the heels of a six-run Rebels fourth and consecutive two-run rallies in the fifth and sixth frames, Mann’s leadoff solo shot in the home half of the sixth ignited a six-run Mizzou outburst. Tre Morris, who drove in the first two MU runs of the game with his two-run homer in the fourth, tripled home a run following a Hank Zeisler walk. Ross Lovich added an RBI single, pulling the Tigers to within 9-5, and Dalton Bargo delivered a critical three-run bomb to right off the Mizzou bench to make it a one-run affair.

Mann turned in a repeat performance to level the score in the seventh, leading off the inning by driving a 2-2 pitch from Mason Nichols over the right-center field fence.

Troesser set the Rebels (24-22, 5-17 SEC) down in order in the eighth after Rorik Maltrud struck out a pair in a scoreless seventh. In all, the duo combined to log 3.0 innings of one-hit, scoreless relief to keep the Tigers within striking distance.

In the bottom of the eighth, a one-out Cam Chick base hit set the stage for Garcia, who displayed legitimate light-tower power, driving Jack Dougherty’s full-count offering off of an actual light pole just beyond the left-field wall for the go-ahead two-run homer.

Troesser closed the door with another perfect inning in the ninth to lock up the victory.

The hard-fought win for Mizzou (26-19, 6-16 SEC) followed a strong opening three innings by both Chandler Murphy and Ole Miss’s Xavier Rivas, who allowed just three combined hits over the first third of the contest.

Ole Miss broke through in the fourth, however, putting its first four batters aboard en route to a five-run rally. A two-run homer by Kemp Alderman opened the scoring, and T.J. McCants capped the inning with a three-run shot to hand Rivas and the Rebels a 5-0 advantage.

The Tigers responded at the bottom of the fourth, using a Ziesler infield single as a springboard to their first true scoring chance of the game. Morris lifted a 3-2 pitch into the Mizzou bullpen in left to trim the Rebel lead to three.

Ole Miss countered in the fifth, benefiting from a pair of walks, base hits by Alderman and John Kramer and a two-out Tiger error to plate two more and reclaim its five-run lead. The visitors tacked on two more in the sixth on a Jacob Gonzalez solo shot and a Calvin Harris triple that turned into a run after a balk call.

But Mizzou finally got to Rivas in the sixth, chasing the left-hander after 5 1/3 innings. The Tigers then touched up Riley Maddox for four runs on three hits during the key sixth-inning rally.

Morris paced the Tiger attack with a 2-for-3 night, scoring two runs and driving in three more, while Mann and Zeisler added two-hit efforts as well. The Tiger bench delivered two of the game’s biggest hits, including Bargo’s fifth home run of the season and Chick’s key eighth-inning hit that started the deciding rally.

TIGER NOTEBOOK

  • Mizzou improved to 10-15 all-time versus Ole Miss and 4-2 against the Rebels at home, snapping a four-game skid in the series
  • The Tigers also improved to 15-6 at home this spring
  • Mann belted the 42nd and 43rd home runs of his Mizzou career, moving into sole possession of third place on the Tigers’ all-time home runs list
  • Garcia’s go-ahead hit marked his second in SEC play this season, following his walk-off two-run single vs. Vanderbilt on April 7
  • The Tigers hit at least five home runs for the second time this season (joining their six-homer day vs. Lamar on March 15)
  • Mizzou also increased its season home run total to 55, marking just the 11th time since 1950 a Tiger team has hit at least 55 round-trippers in a season
  • Tuesday’s announced attendance of 1,309 marked the Tigers’ 15th crowd of at least 1,000 fans in 18 home dates this season
  • Mizzou’s season attendance total increased to 28,896, which is just 2,554 fans shy of matching the program’s all-time single-season record of 31,450 (set in 2008)
  • Dylan Leach reached base safely for the 17th time in 18 games by drawing a third-inning walk

UP NEXT

The Tigers and Rebels continue their series Friday (May 5) with another 6 p.m. contest. Single-game tickets for this weekend’s series, 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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This article is provided by University of Missouri Athletics
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