The month of April has not been kind to Mark Vierling.
On March 31 at Auburn, Vierling went 1-4 with a single. But as the calendar turned to April, his luck at the plate soured. In 18 at bats across eight games, the infielder had not recorded a hit. His batting line had fallen to .223/.331/.301.
In the two games Missouri has played against Vanderbilt, Vierling hasn’t started at his usual position at second base. But as the team learned on March 25 against Mississippi State, he doesn’t shy away from the big moment.
On that date, Vierling hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to give MU a 5-4 win in the 11th inning. So on Friday night, with Vanderbilt and Missouri tied at 1-1 with the bases loaded and two out in the eighth, it was the freshman who pinch hit.
“It was just a good matchup for Mark,” coach Steve Bieser said. “He’s been scuffling a little bit in April, but he’s a fastball hitter. They’re bringing their guy in who has a plus fastball , and we’re going to get a fastball so I sent him up there and told him to be ready to hit.”
Just as he came through almost a month ago, he did again against the Commodores, pulling a fastball in on his hands through the 5.5 hole and into left field. Chris Cornelius scored from third and Trey Harris from second, just beating the throw home. Harris vaulted up, fists swinging through the air and voice bellowing toward the dugout. It was the deciding blow in Missouri's 3-1 win, which moved the Tigers to 27-12 and 8-9 in the SEC.
“I didn’t barrel it up completely, but I was just praying that it would go through,” Vierling said, smiling through his teeth. “I got it. So it’s awesome for my team. Huge win.”
“Really pleased with him and proud of him for just battling, because it’s been very frustrating this month for him,” Bieser added.
Despite allowing a walk and single, Nile Ball nailed down the save in ninth, clinching Missouri’s first SEC series win since three weeks ago at Auburn. Missouri has held Vanderbilt to two runs over 18 innings, continuing a season-long trend of dominant pitching.
Tyler LaPlante received his second-consecutive weekend start, and he fared much better Friday night than a week ago. After allowing three runs in six innings to Florida a week ago, LaPlante brought his best stuff to the Commodores, striking out five and allowing just a run over six innings.
“I thought Tyler did a great job of battling all game long and mixing up his pitches,” Bieser said. “As far as his best outing of the year — it wasn’t close to that. But whenever he was just able to compete with less than his best command against a very good SEC program, I like how he competed.”
With the game tied at 1-1 after six innings and with LaPlante at 100 pitches, Bieser gave the ball to Bryce Montes de Oca, who hadn’t pitched since April 7 against Alabama. Friday’s appearance marked the right hander’s first out of the bullpen this year, and it contained all the highs and lows of his typical start.
In the seventh, after inducing two quick groundouts, Montes de Oca allowed a single and then threw two wild pitches. He then struck out Austin Martin.
The next inning, Montes de Oca walked the leadoff hitter, struck out a batter, allowed a single and then got two more strikeouts. After giving off signs of lost command, the 6-7 righty overpowered the Commodores with his fastball that touches 100 mph.
“Yeah it’s always different but it just comes down to getting guys out as fast as possible,” Montes de Oca said. “Just throw as hard as you can as long as you can until someone takes the ball away from you.”
It is not clear at this point whether or not Montes de Oca will make a return to the rotation next weekend, but Bieser hinted that he likes the way his stuff plays out of the bullpen.
“I like the way Tyler LaPlante’s throwing the ball and I like having a guy that throws 100 coming out of the bullpen as well,” Bieser said. “I think we’ll ease his pitch count back up and see how he feels.”
After dropping two straight SEC series to Alabama and Florida, Missouri needed an answer coming into this weekend series. The offense has mustered just eight hits in two games, but the pitching has been so good that it makes what happens at the plate less important.
All Missouri needs is a few timely hits, and that’s what it got from Vierling in the eighth. It’ll go for its first SEC series sweep of the year on Saturday at 2 p.m.
“We knew coming into this getting swept last week that we wanted to even our (SEC) record back up,” Bieser said. “I felt that if we came out and played good baseball that we would have a good chance to win the series, if not sweep. Now we’ve got the opportunity to sweep. We’ve got to come out to play, and it’s always nice when you have Michael Plassmeyer.”
Friday night's game was played in front of a season-high 2,312 people at Taylor Stadium.
