COLUMBIA, MO. • It was below freezing in Boone County this morning, but spring is on its way. At least the spring sports season is nearly here, which means Mizzou baseball is just around the corner. There’s an authentic buzz around the Tigers for the first time in years as Tim Jamieson returns the bulk of last year’s team that went 30-28, a 10-win improvement from 2014, and just missed on an NCAA regional.
The Tigers have appeared in a handful of preseason national polls, coming in at No. 15 by PerfectGame.org and No. 17 by Collegiate Baseball.
Mizzou begins its season a week from Friday with a three-game series against Seton Hall in Fort Myers, Fla. The Tigers’ first home game is set for March 2 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Jamieson met with the media on Thursday and shared a few items to pass along. (We’ll have more on sophomore standout pitcher Tanner Houck in Saturday’s print edition): The starting lineup is all but set with returning players Brett Bond (catcher), Zach Lavy (first base), Ryan Howard (shortstop), Shane Benes (third base), Trey Harris (left field) and Jake Ring (center field). For now, the top contender at second base is freshman Connor Brumfield, an all-state outfielder from Rock Bridge her in Columbia, and in right field junior college transfer Kirby McGuire, a Texan who began his college career at New Mexico.
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Benes, the former Westminster High standout and son of former Cardinals pitcher Andy Benes, played only 19 games last year after recovering from multiple knee injuries, but he’s regained his flexibility and should be a fixture at third base, replacing Josh Lester, last year’s team leader in homers and RBI. “Shane’s finally healthy,” Jamieson said. “He’s a lot more confident. He went almost a year and a half without playing. He looks a lot more like the guy we recruited than the guy we had last year.” Primarily a DH last year, Benes should be a prime source of power. How’s he looked so far? “Raking,” Howard said.
Speaking of Howard, the St. Charles native has a new role this spring: leadoff hitter. “He’s going to give you a great at-bat every time and we don’t have a true leadoff guy,” said Jamieson, who usually hit Howard third last year. “Right now we’re trying to stack the best hitters on top of each other. … He knows he’s not a leadoff hitter and we don’t ask him to be a leadoff hitter. We just ask him to get the first at-bat of the game. I think he embraces it.”
As for the rotation, Jamieson won’t fix what’s not broken: senior Reggie McClain will open the season as the Friday night starter for weekend series with Houck staying put as the Saturday starter. “If Reggie struggles on Friday, which he really didn’t do last year, and we have to use the bullpen, Tanner’s not really going to use very much of the bullpen on Saturday,” Jamieson said. “Mainly nothing’s been done for us to switch it. They’re both comfortable pitching on their days.”
Jamieson couldn’t explain why McClain wasn’t drafted last year. The righty had every intention of signing professionally. He took his nameplate off his locker after the season and his father wrote Jamieson a thank you note for welcoming his son into the program. But then the draft came and nobody selected the 6-2 Georgia native. “I think people dropped the ball and didn’t do their homework,” Jamieson said. “He would have signed for less than your microphone.”
As for the Sunday starter’s role, senior lefty Austin Tribby and freshman lefty Michael Plassmeyer (De Smet) are the top contenders. If he’s not the Sunday starter, Plassmeyer could emerge as Jamieson’s top choice to start midweek games.
Two more newcomers whose names will be familiar for Mizzou football fans: Former running back Tyler Hunt has joined the team as a right-handed reliever. Hunt was a standout high school pitcher before opting to play football at Mizzou. He’s talked to Jamieson for the last three years about joining the team but football commitments made it hard to moonlight on the mound. “He’s still got a ways to go, but he’s getting better,” Jamieson said. “He’s got a good arm, but he just hasn’t had a lot of experience.”
Also, running back Marquise Doherty, a redshirt last fall, is competing for a job as a reserve outfielder. The Kansas City native was a 15th-round selection by the Royals last summer. “When he first got in he got carved by our guys,” Jamieson said. “He’s a guy who hadn’t played very much. But recently he’s shown signs of helping us. Going into the year you don’t know what to expect from him, and I still don’t know for sure, but I’ve seen some pretty good improvement.”
Showdown in Raleigh
Brian Smith’s No. 5 Mizzou wrestling team concludes the regular season this weekend with a pivotal dual at No. 3 North Carolina State on Sunday. The outcome will have a major impact on the seedings for next week’s National Duals. The NWCA Dual Championship Series are hosted at Big Ten sites, with the Big Ten champion hosting the highest-ranked champion from another conference, the No. 2 Big Ten team against the next-highest ranked conference champion and so on. With a win at N.C. State, the Tigers would figure to earn the invitation to face the Big Ten champion, either No. 1 Penn State or No. 2 Iowa. The Tigers beat Iowa to claim last year’s National Duals championship.
First up, Smiths’ team wrestles at Appalachian State on Friday.
Also this week, the latest batch of NCAA coaches panel rankings were released with nine of MU’s 10 starters earning a national rank. The rankings are use to determine qualifiers for the NCAA Championships, set for March 17-19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Here’s where the Tigers stood in the latest rankings:
125: Barlow McGhee, No. 11
133: Zach Synon, No. 14
141: Matt Manley, No. 6
149: Lavion Mayes, No. 3
157: Le'Roy Barnes, No. 29
165: Daniel Lewis, No. 4
174: Blaise Butler, No. 5
184: Willie Miklus, No. 11
197: J'den Cox, No. 2
Rally for Rhyan
We’ll have more in Saturday’s P-D, but Saturday’s 2 p.m. Mizzou men’s basketball game against Tennessee is the Rally for Rhyan game, with free admission for all fans who make a cash donation to pediatric cancer research in honor of Rhyan Loos, the five-year-old daughter of assistant coach Brad Loos. Rhyan was diagnosed with high-risk, stage four neuroblastoma back in the fall. Rhyan has been through five cycles of chemotherapy and will undergo surgery March 2 to remove a tumor on her kidney.
“This is about more than basketball,” MU coach Kim Anderson said this week. “This is about a little girl’s life. It’s about a lot of kids’ lives.”
Chasing history
If Anderson’s Tigers (8-16, 1-10 SEC) lose to the Volunteers on Saturday — kenpom.com projects the Vols to win their second road game in 12 tries, 76-73 — it will give Mizzou 10 straight losses, the fourth-longest losing streak in team history. And Anderson will join Bob Vanatta as the only Mizzou coaches to oversee multiple double-digit losing streaks. The others …
13: 2014-15
12: 1965-66, 1966-67
11: 1958-59
Another loss Saturday also puts the Tigers in serious jeopardy of failing to reach double-digit wins for the season. Since the start of the 2001-02 season, only five programs from the six major conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) have endured consecutive single-digit win seasons: Penn State (four consecutive), DePaul (three), Purdue (two), St. John’s (two) and Washington State (two). All five of those programs underwent a head-coaching change either between the single-digit win seasons or after.
Still shopping
Simple math tells us Anderson expects roster turnover. The Tigers have 11 scholarship players right now and only lose one senior, Ryan Rosburg. MU has signed three incoming freshmen for 2016-17 — Mitchell Smith, Willie Jackson and Reed Nikko — and have already added Texas transfer Jordan Barnett. To make those four fit, the Tigers need at least one roster casualty this offseason. Plus, the Tigers gave up one scholarship for either the 2016-17 or 2017-18 season as part of its self-sanctions. But Anderson’s staff is still recruiting for the 2016 spring period, with strong interest in Deshawn Corprew, a 6-5 wing from Virginia, and Cheickna Dembele, a 6-10 center from Mali, Africa, who plays at Scotland Performance Institute in Chambersburg, Pa.
Where does Anderson create the roster space for current targets? Common sense says to look no further than the sophomore class. Asked about the four sophomores’ development this season, Anderson said Monday, “They’ve had their moments. I’ll just leave it at that.” Remember, the foursome of Jakeenan Gant, Namon Wright, D’Angelo Allen and Tramaine Isabell have been suspended a combined 20 games the last two seasons for various reasons.
