Bieser ties Gene McArtor for most wins ever by a first-year Mizzou coach
In his first-year as Head Coach, Steve Bieser accomplished a feat that was set out at the beginning of the season. Bieser tied the legendary Gene McArtor for 28 wins as a first-year head coach, a triumph that McArtor achieved in 1974.
“I thought we would be better than a .500 club,” Bieser said. “I still feel like we are a 35-win club and it will take a lot of work to get to 35 now.”
The Missouri (28-18) (8-13 SEC) offense arose from the dead in Tuesday night’s 11-0 victory over Murray State (22-23) (10-11 OVC). The Tigers scattered 13 hits five of them being the extra base hit variety. Over the past six games, Mizzou was hitting .169 as a team and was reaching base at a .244 clip in that span. Missouri scored five earned runs over its six-game losing streak and only 12 total runs.
“This was a real positive for our club to come out and respond,” Bieser said. “We had an outstanding practice yesterday and guys carried it over into the game. We hope we can continue to build off of this and I loved the way we played defense.”
Three unearned runs crossed the plate in the bottom of the second. Matt Berler (0-1, RBI), making his first start since March 31st against Florida, recorded his seventh RBI of the year with a sacrifice fly to centerfield. Connor Brumfield (2-4, RBI) followed with his team-leading 54th hit of the year, a double to shallow centerfield scoring Ian Nelson (1-4, run, RBI).
“Those guys put in a lot of work,” Bond said. “Like I said, everyone has been struggling lately so it’s good for anyone to hop out of a slump.”
The Tigers added to its three run lead in the bottom of the fifth courtesy of a RBI-groundout by Trey Harris (1-4, run, RBI) and a solo-shot by Brett Bond (4-5, two runs two RBIs). For Bond, it was his ninth home run of the year, which puts him in second place behind Harris who has 12. It was also his second four-hit game of the season.
“This week I put in a lot of extra work with Coach Lawson and went in the cage to try and figure some things out,” Bond said. “We wanted to build up my confidence and get back to the basics and work on hitting the fastball through the middle.”
Chris Cornelius (1-4, run, two RBIs) plated a pair in the bottom of the seventh as he singled to right field. The ball got past the right fielder and allowed Cornelius to come all the way around to score giving the Tigers a comfortable 9-0 lead.
“It’s funny because we always dog Chris about his speed so seeing that was funny,” Andy Toelken said.
Toelken (3-3, 3.09 ERA) notched his first career shutout going seven innings, allowing no runs, five hits and struck out five. For Toelken, it was his fourth time going seven innings this season as he earned his third win of the year.
“I thought Andy was really good,” Bieser said. “He came out with a plus breaking ball in the first inning. That was one of the first things I noticed. I like Andy’s fastball, I think it jumps on people and he was able to use some changeups in there. He had a really good three-pitch mix and anytime you do that you can keep good teams off balance.”
Missouri heads to Nashville this weekend for a three-game series with Vanderbilt (26-17) (10-10 SEC). The Tigers have yet to beat the Commodores trailing 14-0 in the all-time series. Tex Little and Matt Michaels have the call on KTGR [100.5 FM/1580 AM] at 6:30 p.m. on Friday night.