Missouri baseball will conclude its season-opening Florida trip with a four-game series against Northeastern in Fort Myers this weekend. The Tigers (3-1) are looking to continue their hot start to the season, which has included a series win at Florida International and a victory over No. 24 Miami in a stand-alone contest.

Missouri’s original weekend rotation will take the mound against the Huskies (2-1), starting with Bryce Montes de Oca (0-0, 0.00 ERA) on Friday at 5:30 p.m. The right-handed redshirt junior will make his second start of the season. Despite walking seven batters against FIU in Missouri’s first game, Montes de Oca threw 3.2 innings of scoreless ball. Northeastern will start Brian Christian (0-1, 23.62).

Saturday will bring Missouri’s first double-header of the year. Game one will start at noon, with Michael Plassmeyer (1-0, 1.80) taking the mound against Tyler Brown (1-0, 3.60). Plassmeyer, the junior out of DeSmet, shoved in his first start against FIU, striking out eight and only allowing one run through five innings. The starters for game two on Saturday are yet to be announced.

Andy Toelken (0-0, 11.25) will make his second straight Sunday start against Sean Mellen (1-0, 3.60) at 10:30 a.m.. The senior will look to bounce back from his first outing, in which he allowed five earned runs through four frames and was tabbed with the loss against FIU.

In its first-ever matchup against Northeastern baseball, Missouri will look to keep its bats hot after posting a nine-spot against Miami on Wednesday. The Tigers recorded a symmetrical nine hits and nine walks in their trouncing of the Hurricanes, and three players recorded multi-hit games.

One of those players — of course — was Kameron Misner. The sophomore is off to a blistering start to 2018, sitting amongst the top ranks of the Southeastern Conference in several statistical categories. Misner leads in walks (11), on-base percentage (.773) and slugging percentage (1.455). His 16 total bases is third, and his .545 batting average is fifth. After four games, Misner has the same amount of free-passes as official at-bats, which seems… impossible.

As a team, Missouri is hitting .291 with an OPS of .883. Five Tigers (Misner, Trey Harris, Chris Cornelius, Zach Hanna and Brian Shaw) have averages at or above .300. Misner and Harris both lead the team with seven runs scored, and the two players have formed something of a dynamic duo thus far as the No. 2 and 3 hitters.

Harris is not only batting .400/.455/.550 but also showing his athleticism on the base paths. The senior outfielder has stolen two bases, and three of Misner’s seven RBI have driven him in.

With Missouri’s offense has come effective pitching, from the starters and out of the bullpen. The Tigers’ starting pitching has posted an ERA of 3.14 through four games. The pen has been successful in maintaining the team’s leads — Cameron Dulle is Missouri’s only reliever that’s allowed more than one earned run.

Head coach Steve Bieser will certainly look to T.J. Sikkema at some point during the series. The southpaw has more than lived up the the preseason hype thus far, striking out 12 batters while only allowing one run through a team-leading eight innings pitched.