The Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold brings us the following update on Mizzou baseball and its stadium:

The nationally-ranked Mizzou baseball club will break ground on nearly $5 million in improvements to its stadium at the end of the 2009 season.

The renovations will including an additional 600 seats for Taylor Stadium and a massive upgrade of the club’s facilities at the ballpark. A new clubhouse will be built for the Tigers and a new building beyond the right-field fence will be constructed to house an indoor batting cage and coaches’ office -– similar in purpose to the building the Cardinals Class AA affiliate as in Springfield, Mo., at Hammons Field. There are discussions about adding a new scoreboard and a video board at Taylor Stadium.

The entire cost is expected to run between $4 million and $5 million, and the money is partially coming as a result of the original Laurie family donation that funded the new basketball arena.

Since Taylor Stadium opened in 2000 as a the program’s new, $2.1-million addition to Simmons Field, the Mizzou baseball team has surged into national prominence. The Tigers, under coach Tim Jamieson, opened the 2008 season with a top-10 ranking and finished with a sixth consecutive berth in the NCAA Tournament. Taylor Stadium hosted, for the first time, an NCAA Regional in 2007.

The Tigers have scrimmages scheduled all weekend, including one Saturday that serves as prelude to the football game against Oklahoma State. The Mizzou baseball team will play at 1:30 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday. After years of first-round picks like Max Scherzer and Aaron Crow fronting the rotation, the Tigers’ run of high-caliber aces continues with Kyle Gibson. The righthander was 5-0 with a 1.02 ERA in 13 appearances for the undefeated Team USA this past summer. He struck out 25 and walked four in 17 2/3 innings.