No. 18 Mizzou baseball rolls past SIU-Edwardsville 12-1

COLUMBIA, Mo. – No. 18 Mizzou triumphed in a 12-1 win over SIU-Edwardsville on Wednesday night at Taylor Stadium. Senior OF Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.), senior DH Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.), senior IF Alex Samples (Bridgeport, Texas), senior OF Matt Berler (Hoover, Ala.), junior PH Zach Hanna (Shawnee, Kan.) and freshman C Chad McDaniel (Coral Springs, Fla.) all recorded two hits. Both Harris and junior 1B Isaiah Cullum (Bushnell, Fla.) homered.

Junior LHP Tyler LaPlante (Blue Springs, Mo.) pitched a scoreless 3.0 innings, improving his record to 4-1 while striking out a season-high of six batters. SIU-E RHP David Llorens tallied his third loss of the season. Mizzou improves to 22-7 of the season. SIU-E drops to 7-19.

TURNING POINT

Senior DH Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) jumpstarted the offense in the second inning with a leadoff single to centerfield. Bond then proceeded to steal second and third base. Junior 1B Isaiah Cullum(Bushnell, Fla.) walked and then stole second base. With runners in scoring position, sophomore SS Chris Cornelius (St. Louis, Mo.) grounded out to the right side, scoring Bond. Next, Junior IF Paul Gomez (Orange, Calif.) walked and senior LF Matt Berler (Hoover, Ala.) singled, loading the bases for senior RF Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.). Harris singled to right field, driving in both Cullum and Gomez, bringing the total of runs scored in the second inning to three.

QUOTING MIZZOU

Head Coach Steve Bieser:
“We were hoping that we could throw three or more guys than we did. Our goal with yesterday’s game being cancelled was to get the entire bullpen some work. Last weekend ,we used six pitchers, so not a lot of people got work. It was important to get the guys who got work tonight the work they needed and it worked out really well.”

TOP TIGERS

. Junior LHP Tyler LaPlante (Blue Springs, Mo.) pitched a scoreless first three innings, posting a season-high six strikeouts and allowing two hits.
Junior 1B Isaiah Cullum (Bushnell, Fla.) recorded a two-run homer in the bottom of the third inning.
Senior RF Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) was 2-3 at the plate, singling in the second inning and adding a solo homer in the fourth. Harris drove in three RBIs, making that his seventh multi-RBI game this season.
Senior 3B Alex Samples (Bridgeport, Texas) singled in the third and fourth innings, going 2-3 at the plate and adding an RBI.
Senior DH Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) went 2-4, singling in the second and sixth innings.
Junior IF Paul Gomez (Orange, Calif.) walked four times in his five at-bats. This ties his season-high for walks in a game.
Junior PH Zach Hanna (Shawnee, Kan.) went 2-3, recording two singles and two RBIs. It was Hanna’s fourth multi-RBI game and his fourth multi-hit game.
Senior OF Matt Berler (Hoover, Ala.) recorded a single in the second inning and a triple in the eighth inning. He also tallied two RBIs.
Freshman C Chad McDaniel (Coral Springs, Fla.) had two hits a double in the fourth inning and a single in the seventh inning.

NOTES

Mizzou now leads the all-time series with SIU-Edwardsville, 17-4.
Mizzou improves to 4-0 on Wednesdays and is a perfect 7-0 in midweek games this season.
Mizzou improves to 14-1 at home this season.
Mizzou has won three in a row and four of five heading into its weekend series with Alabama.
Junior 1B Isaiah Cullum stole his first career base Wednesday, doing so after walking in the second inning.
Cullum followed that with his first HR as a Tiger in the bottom of the third.
Senior LF Matt Berler tallied his first hit since March 3 with an infield single in the first inning.
Senior OF Trey Harris posted his seventh multi-RBI game of the season, tying him for the team lead.
Harris added his team-leading fifth homer of the season in the bottom of the fourth inning. Over his last five games, Harris is 9-for-19 with six runs, 11 RBI and three homers.
Senior Alex Samples turned in his sixth multi-hit game of the year.
INF Paul Gomez walked four times, marking his second career four-walk game.
Mizzou played its 18^th errorless game of the season. Mizzou had just 16 such games a year ago.

UP NEXT

Mizzou welcomes Alabama to Taylor Stadium for a three-game set this weekend, beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —