COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 15 Mizzou Baseball’s Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) and Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) continue to garner preseason honors as the duo was named to the Preseason All-SEC Team, as announced Thursday morning (Feb. 18) by the league office. The team, which was divided into a first and second team, was selected by the league’s 14 coaches. Howard landed on the All-SEC First Team at shortstop and Houck was one of four starting pitchers selected to the All-SEC Second Team. The All-SEC distinction for Howard and Houck comes after the two were named to the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Watch List Tuesday.
Additionally, Mizzou was picked to finish fifth in the SEC East by the league’s coaches. Florida was picked to win the SEC East and the conference with 13 of the 14 first-place votes, making it a unanimous choice as coaches are not permitted to vote for their own teams.
Houck put together one of the best freshman seasons in Mizzou baseball history. His eight wins are the most by a Tiger freshman since Kyle Gibson (a former first-round draft pick) in 2007 and his 100.2 innings are the most ever by a Tiger freshman under Tim Jamieson. At the end of the regular season, he had thrown more innings than any other freshman in the country. He compiled a 3.49 ERA on the season, striking out 91 batters over 100.2 innings while walking just 12 in 15 starts as a freshman.
Houck was named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List and was an All-SEC Freshman Team honoree as well. He helped Mizzou defeat three top-five teams – No. 6 South Carolina, No. 4 Florida and No. 1 Texas A&M – earning wins in two of those three starts. Houck spent his summer with USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team, where he led the team in innings pitched, strikeouts and starts while boasting an 11-1 strikeout-walk ratio and a .159 opponent batting average. He threw 4.0 perfect innings in a combined no-hitter against Cuba as well.
In 2015, Howard led the team in batting, at-bats and total bases while committing just seven errors in the field at short. He is coming off of an incredible summer as he was the starting SS for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team. He hit .310 with six runs and three RBI in 17 games while slugging four doubles and a homer.
Howard was drafted in the 31st round of the MLB Draft by the San Francisco Giants last summer, but elected to come back to Mizzou for his junior season and play with Team USA over the summer. This is another honor for Howard in the preseason. He was selected as the best infield arm in the SEC by Baseball America and was a top-100 prospect for the 2016 MLB Draft by D1Baseball.com.
Howard, Houck and the Tigers open the season this weekend in Fort Myers, Fla., where they will play a four-game series against Seton Hall beginning Friday at 1 p.m. (CT).
— Mizzou Athletics —