Missouri Baseball Gets Shutout in SEC Opener Against No. 1 Arkansas
Unranked Missouri against No. 1 Arkansas. It was going to be bad.
The Tigers dropped their first game of SEC play 8-0 against Arkansas, being shutout for the first time since April 8, 2023. All of the Razorbacks runs in the game were scored from home runs.
A Lovich brother helped get the first runs of the game with a hit-by-pitch to put a man on base when a homer was sent over the wall in right. Then, in the second inning, he crushed a ball out of the park with two runners on in the third inning. His name was Ross, however, not Jackson.
A third homer from Kendall Diggs racked up the seventh run of the game for the Razorbacks. This was the end of the line for Missouri starter Logan Lunceford.
A fourth homer was put up in the eighth inning by Nolan Souza, his second of the game, to dig the knife of Arkansas's win a little deeper.
Lately, Jacob Peaden has been used in the closer role for Missouri, but he wore a different hat in this game. After a couple rough relief appearances, Peaden saw some success in his pitches and was finally able to get Arkansas to go in order in the fifth inning. He followed it up with two more scoreless innings before the home run he gave up in the eighth.
Missouri's offense was silenced against Arkansas's star pitcher Hagen Smith. The Tigers were struck out 12 times in the game and only recorded four hits. They were never able to get a runner past second base in the game — except when Jackson Lovich made it there on a wild pitch all the way from first, but was sent back to second when the ball got stuck out of reach.
In Missouri's defense, they were going against a pitcher who leads the entire country in strikeouts per game. But, this wasn't even their highest number of strikeouts this year, they have had seven games this season with more strikeouts.
The Tigers' fielding didn't help them any in this game. By the third inning, the Tigers had made two errors. Missouri would have only been down by three runs after the second home run if not for an error on Justin Colon that would have put up a double play to clear the bases.
Missouri's record drops to 9-9 on the season and 0-1 in conference play, while Arkansas improves to 15-2 and 1-0 in conference play. Javyn Pimental will take the mound at 2 p.m. CT for their second game against the Razorbacks.