COLUMBIA, Mo. – Sophomore RHP Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) was sensational as Mizzou Baseball dropped game two of its series with No. 4 Vanderbilt, 2-0, in 11 innings on Saturday night at Taylor Stadium. Houck worked a masterful 9.0 shutout innings, allowing just two hits while striking out 14 Commodore hitters, the most strikeouts by a Tiger hitter since Kyle Gibson fanned 15 on April 3, 2009, against Oklahoma. Houck had just one fly ball leave the infield as he had 11 groundouts, one flyout and a pop up to second to go along with his 14 strikeouts. The only two hits he gave up were ground balls off the bat of Ro Coleman and one of those two was an infield hit.

Mizzou’s offense certainly had its chances and likely needed just one run to escape with the win, but Mizzou went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position on Saturday and missed multiple chances to give Houck the win. The loss drops Mizzou to 14-11 on the year and 0-5 in SEC play.

Junior SS Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) tallied his first multi-hit game since March 6 against UIC to lead Mizzou’s offense, with one of his two hits being a double. Shane Benes (Town & Country, Mo.), Zach Lavy (Auxvasse, Mo.) and Ian Nelson (Lake St. Louis, Mo.) also tallied hits in the loss with Nelson’s lone hit registering as his third career double.

But the story on Saturday was Houck. He retired the first 12 batters he faced until a leadoff walk in the fifth inning. The only time Vanderbilt threatened to score on Houck was after a leadoff error in the sixth inning and a one-out single put runners on the corners with one out. Jeren Kendall then flew out to center field, but Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.) gunned the go-ahead run at the dish to preserve the shutout.

Vanderbilt then threatened again in the top of the ninth inning after a leadoff infield single by Coleman. He was moved to second base after a pair of outs and Houck, on his 119th pitch, struck out Will Toffey to strand the go-ahead run at second base.

Mizzou nearly won the game for Houck in the bottom of the ninth. Lavy led off the frame with a single through the right side and went to second base on a wild pitch with no outs. Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) then struck out swinging and after an intentional walk, Benes hit into a double play to end the threat.

Vanderbilt then scored two runs on another two-out rally. Reliever Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.) got the first two batters of the frame, but a single, a walk and two more singles plated two runs, handing Mizzou the loss. Bartlett took the loss, falling to 1-2 on the year.

Game three of the series will be Sunday at 12 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —