Good start to the season for MU baseball

LAKE CHARLES, La. - The Missouri baseball team has gotten the season started on the right foot.

The Tigers opened the year by going 2-1 in action this weekend at the Cowboy Diamond, starting things off with a 4-2 win against Southern Mississippi on Friday.

The Tigers did their damage late in that one, getting all four runs in the final four innings. Missouri scored single runs in the sixth and eighth innings to go with two runs in the seventh frame.

Southern Mississippi, meanwhile, never scored again after getting two runs in the first inning.

Ryan Phillips, the second of four Missouri relievers, got the win by pitching two hitless, scoreless innings during the sixth and seventh. He struck out two.

Keaton Steele, the last of those relievers, got his first save of the season by pitching a hitless ninth.

Shane Segovia had two hits and one RBI to pace the Tigers on offense, while Zach Lavy also drove in one run. Each team managed just four hits in the game.

On Saturday, the Tigers outhit McNeese State, but lost to the host Cowboys by a 3-2 score.

McNeese started the scoring with a run in the first, but saw Missouri tie it in the second. The Cowboys then went up 2-1 in the third thanks to a double steal, but the Tigers came right back in the top of the fourth to tie it at 2.

McNeese got the winning run in the fifth thanks to a Missouri error, one of four in the game for the Tigers.

Brett Graves, the first of five Missouri pitchers, took the loss. He gaveup three runs (two earned) on four hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked two.

Kendall Keeton and Jake Ivory had two hits and one RBI each for Missouri. No other Tiger had multiple hits.

In their final game, Missouri took a 6-3 win against Chicago State in a contest where the teams combined for 20 hits. The Tigers had a 12-8 lead in that category.

Dylan Kelly had three hits and two RBI for the Tigers, while Segovia added three hits of his own. Ivory and Jake Ring had two hits and one RBI each, while Lavy had one hit and one RBI.

Ryan Phillips, the first of three relievers for Missouri, picked up the win. That was fitting on a weekend where the Tigers' bullpen three 11 2/3 innings and did not allow a run while giving up just two hits and one walk while striking out 11. In this contest, Phillips did not allow a hit, walk or run while striking out two in 1 2/3 innings.

Missouri (2-1) will head to Winston-Salem, N.C., this weekend for a tournament with Radford, Wake Forest and Cincinnati.