Missouri’s spot in the SEC Tournament now lies just nine innings away. The Tigers beat Tennessee 3-2 in 12 innings on Thursday night at Taylor Stadium. Paired with Texas A&M’s win over South Carolina, that means the Tigers need just one win in the next two days to secure the final spot in the conference tournament in Hoover, Alabama next week.
“It’s must-win baseball,” senior third baseman Alex Samples said. “If we lost, we were going to be devastated.”
Thanks to Samples, they didn’t. With runners at first and second and one out in the bottom of the 12th, Tennessee coach Tony Vitello called sophomore Garrett Stallings out of his bullpen. Stallings’ second pitch was the 397th of the game. Samples grounded it back up the middle, just beyond the reach of the diving Andre Lipcius and into center field. Matt Berler raced home with the winning run, giving the Tigers a 3-2 win after some four hours of baseball.
"I thought he was seeing the ball really well and I was hoping he would get up there," head coach Steve Bieser said. "Have a lot of confidence in what he's doing right now."
“Being the guy that gets the opportunity to do it, I’m just so thankful for,” Samples said. “I’ll never forget this.”
The theme of the night up until Samples’ game-winner was dominant pitching.
Missouri ace T.J. Sikkema went seven innings, giving up just one run on six hits. He struck out eight and did not walk a batter for the first time in a start this season. Missouri pitchers struck out 12, but walked only one in 12 innings.
The Tigers didn’t get a lot done on offense themselves. Missouri had just nine hits and struck out 21 times against the Volunteer pitchers. Fourteen of those whiffs came against right-handed sophomore Zach Linginfelter, who was making his first start since the third week of the season. It was the most strikeouts by a Tennessee pitcher in 11 seasons.
“I asked the guys lets get some pitchers pitch counts up,” Bieser said. “They just got behind in the count and you get a guy that’s throwing 95 and has a nasty slider you’re going to get some strikeouts. We did a hell of a job racking up a ton of them.”
The Tigers had a 2-1 lead when Sikkema yielded to Andy Toelken for the top of the eighth inning. Toelken retired the first two Volunteers on just five pitches, but then gave up a walk and a single to put runners at the corners. Center fielder Brodie Leftridge then hit a ball all of 50 feet toward third base and drove in the tying run with an infield single.
Perhaps the most unsung hero for the Tigers was freshman pitcher Cameron Pferrer. He had appeared in just nine games and thrown eight innings this season. But with two outs in the bottom of the 11th and a 2-2 count, Bieser called on Pfeffer from the bullpen to take over for Toelken. The freshman got Justin Ammons to line out to right and preserve a 2-2 tie.
“Cam just builds more and more confidence with us,” Bieser said. “Knowing that he’s a really good matchup against left-handed hitters, that we like him out of the bullpen as well as anybody, we were gonna come in and throw his best pitch. He did hang the first one, but I thought he threw really well.”
Thursday night was step one for the Tigers, who moved to 11-17 in SEC play and tied the Volunteers for 12th place in the league in the process. That is important because only 12 of the 14 teams qualify to play in the SEC Tournament next week in Hoover, Alabama.
The Tigers and Vols play Friday night at 6:30 and Saturday afternoon at 2. If Missouri wins either game, it will play on in Hoover next week.
“We don’t hide anything,” Bieser said. “We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to win one more game.”
