So Mizzou Baseball's first conference roadtrip didn't end up so hot. Despite winning 1-0 Friday night and leading in the 9th all three games, Mizzou managed to lose two of three to the wholly mediocre Red Raiders of Texas Tech, losing 3-2 on Saturday and 15-11 on Sunday. Thoughts...
- For now, I'm chalking this up to a "stuff happens" weekend. It solidified our two biggest worries--lack of timely hits and iffy bullpen--but...well...even teams with horrendous bullpens end up pretty far over .500 in games they lead in the 9th.
- It almost felt like the recent brilliance of our weekend starting pitching cost us because the bullpen was getting very little crunchtime work. Nick Tepesch did well in locking down the 9th on Friday, but he was shaky on Saturday, and Scooter Hicks didn't look too hot on Saturday either. Tim Jamieson has yet to determine who's holding what role in the bullpen, likely because he hasn't had many opportunities to check things out.
- Tech's pitching staff isn't good enough to hold us to 3 runs in the first 18 innings of the weekend.
- Rick Zagone struggled again yesterday...I assume injuries are the source of his troubles, but he's still not putting it together.
- Most impressive is, not only did Mizzou blow two 9th-inning leads this week, but they also scored 4+ in the first inning twice this week and lose both games.
- I can take deep breaths and be really calm and forgiving about what happened in the 9th the last two games, but...that doesn't change the fact that it really sucked.
Bad weekend for baseball, worse weekend for softball. Mizzou was swept in a two-game set in College Station, losing 5-1 and 9-4 to the Lady Ags. That drops them to 2-2 in conference.
But hey, at least Adrianne Perry came through for Mizzou. She is the new All-Around Big 12 Gymnastics Champion. The Missourian has more on Mizzou's overall 3rd place finish.
Football recruiting news! Inside Mizzou catches up with 4-star Texas RB Knile Davis, while PowerMizzou checks in on Hayti DL Craig Robinson and Overland Park OL Jake Morin. Robinson is everybody's new favorite player because he really, really wants to become a Tiger ("I really like their program," ... "I love their offense and their defense. Honestly, Missouri's the top pick of all the schools that are looking at me. If they offer, I'm accepting and there's no changing my mind at all. Even if another school had offered me, I think I would still commit to Missouri first if they offered. I know that it's good to commit when you get an offer, you don't want to wait too late.")
Dave Matter continues his Spring Break series, checking in on the remaining Big 12 teams (OU, Tech, ATM) and Mizzou's non-conference foes.
Finally, on the two-year anniversary, Mike Dearmond talks to AD Mike Alden about the day he almost lost his job. Good times. I wonder why we don't reminisce about this whole stupid drama more often.
Alden then talked of how his peaceful morning was interrupted by a call from The Star, asking not about the Anderson hire as Alden assumed but instead about a special University of Missouri Board of Curators meeting to determine whether Alden should be fired for the fiasco surrounding Quin Snyder’s messy departure.
"I had no idea about that," Alden said Wednesday, recounting his reaction to the call two years ago.
"I hadn’t heard that from Brady (Deaton, UMC chancellor). I hadn’t heard that from Elson Floyd (then president of the University of Missouri system)."
Alden said he could neither confirm nor deny anything. He was due for a 10 a.m. meeting with MU counsel Bunky Wright to iron out details of Anderson’s five-year contract.
Although Alden was struck by the notion that "I’ve got a basketball coach in Jefferson City (in a hotel) that doesn’t know anything about this. I don’t know if I’m going to be the athletics director or not."
It was the prime question for media gathered in the parking lot outside of University Hall when Alden emerged from Wright’s office at 11:45 a.m.
By then, Deaton and Floyd had officially informed Alden of a curators meeting and conference call on his future.
Alden’s first instinct was flight. Particularly when he heard a member of the media, as he climbed into his car, shout: "Hey! There’s Alden!"
"This whole gaggle turns, and they look at me," Alden said. "And they start running across the parking lot."