COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Baseball sophomore RHP Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) has been named SEC Pitcher of the Week, as announced by the league office on Monday (April 11). This is the second SEC Pitcher of the Week honor for Houck this season and the third of his career. The honor comes on the heels of a dominating performance against the SEC’s top offense Auburn. Houck tossed a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits in a 2-0 Mizzou win on Friday night. It was his second complete game shutout this season.

Houck was absolutely dominant on one day short rest as two of the four hits he allowed were infield hits  and only one runner advanced into scoring position through the 9.0 shutout innings as Houck needed just 105 pitches to get the complete game shutout. His 10 strikeouts were the second-most of his career and he also induced 14 ground balls to go along with his 10 strikeouts and just four balls all day were hit out of the infield against Houck. Four of the groundouts were 1-3 putouts on slow dribblers hit back to him as Auburn struggled to square up Houck all day. In the ninth inning, Houck retired the side on just five pitches, displaying his dominance throughout the game.

Houck faced just four batters over the minimum in his start and earned an 88 game score, his second-best of the season. As of Sunday, only four pitchers in the nation had posted a better game score than Houck and only one of those games came against a team from a power conference while Houck’s came against the SEC’s top offense. The next-best game score by an SEC pitcher through Saturday was Mississippi’s Brady Bramlett, who tallied an 82 against Arkansas.

Batters are now hitting just .176 against Houck in SEC play and he has 30 Ks in 30.0 IP with just eight walks while pitching against elite offenses like Florida, Vanderbilt, Auburn and Arkansas. It was the first time Auburn has been shutout in SEC play since May of 2014.

Houck and the Tigers head to Missouri State on Tuesday (April 12) for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch at Hammons Field.

— Northwest Athletics —