(Photos by Erik Hall)
By Erik Hall
COLUMBIA — The Missouri baseball team clinched its first series win of the season Saturday.
Missouri beat Southern Mississippi 6-4 in the second game of the three-game series. Missouri won Friday’s series opener 4-1.
“Winning series, it’s awesome,” Missouri center fielder Jake Ring said. “It’s what’s expected. We expect noting less than to just win a series like this, ’cause we definitely have the talent.”
Ring batted 1-for-4 with a run and a stolen base Saturday. Ring stole home on a double steal in the eighth inning.
Missouri designated hitter Eric Anderson and first baseman Kendall Keeton both had multiple hits for the Tigers. Anderson went 2-for-5 with one run scored, and Keeton batted 2-for-4 with two runs.
Starting pitcher John Miles earned the win on the mound. The junior right-hander improved to 2-0 after throwing 5 1/3 innings allowing four runs, two earned runs and five hits with six strikeouts and one walk.
The Missouri offense aided Miles early with three first-inning runs and two more in the second. The runs gave Missouri an 5-0 lead.
“It just gives us confidence. That’s the biggest thing,” Miles said of the team’s early offense. “If you have confidence, you can win. That’s the bottom line. If you don’t have confidence, you’re never going to win. No matter how good you are if you never have confidence, you’re never going to win. If you’re horrible and you have confidence, you still got a chance to win.”
Keaton Steele earned the save Saturday — his fourth of the season. A.J. Glasshof took the loss for Southern Mississippi.
Missouri improves to 6-6 overall entering Sunday’s series finale at noon. Southern Mississippi is now 6-9 this year.
“Very seldom do you have an opportunity to sweep somebody,” Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said. “You want to make sure you give it your greatest, best effort. We are at .500 now. We get over .500 if we win tomorrow. And that’s another thing you want to be able to do.
“If we win tomorrow, it will be because we outplayed Southern Mississippi. If we lose tomorrow, it will be because we weren’t ready.”
Story originally published by KBIA Sports Extra on Saturday, March 8, 2014.
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