Mizzou baseball had a home run issue Saturday.
The long balls given up by the Tigers’ pitching staff were the deciding factor in Missouri’s 6-4 loss to South Carolina. With a 5-1 loss in Game 1 and a 1-0 loss in Game 2, Mizzou was swept for the third straight time at home since the SEC schedule began.
With the sweep, South Carolina (5-10 in the SEC) slipped out of last place in the conference and Mizzou (3-12 in SEC) moved in.
“We’ve just got to figure out how we can get to the point of being consistent,” Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson said. “We have these ups and downs, and they’re really drastic highs and lows. So it’s our job as a coaching staff to figure out how we can get them consistent.”
The Gamecocks smashed four solo shots off of the bullpen, the shortest of those being Dawson Harman’s 375-foot homer to right field in the fourth inning. Harman tagged another home run in the sixth to push the score to 5-2.
In his second career start, freshman right-hander Sam Rosand tossed just 2⅔ innings and gave up two runs on four hits. Both runs crossed on one play in the top of the second. Two Gamecocks singled to lead off the inning and then Harman followed with a single of his own two batters later to drive in both runners.
Ian Lohse and Luke Sullivan combined for the next four innings and allowed the three runs to score on the three homers. Southpaw Juan Villarreal followed them on the mound and tossed 1⅓ scoreless innings before Mizzou handed the ball to Eli Skidmore for the final inning.
Skidmore gave up the final home run of the game in the ninth. It was a 436-foot shot from South Carolina first baseman Will Craddock to make it 6-2.
With two outs in the fourth inning and the Tigers down 1-2 in the count, Jase Woita broke a 17-inning scoreless streak against his former team. It was a two-run homer that barely eclipsed the right field wall that broke the skid that dated back to the fourth inning of Game 1.
Woita’s home run was the Tigers lone hit until the ninth.
After a lead-off walk from Woita, third baseman Keegan Knutson hit a two-out double that skirted around third base to put two runners in scoring position. Jamal George, who came in as a defensive replacement in the top of the ninth, singled to score Woita. Donovan Jordan, who pinch hit for Leo Humburt in the eighth, doubled to bring in Knutson.
“Coach (Bryson) LeBlanc said, ‘Hey, let’s give these guys a chance’ there at the end, and so we wanted to put it in some guys in there to maybe just give it a fresh look, which they did,” Jackson said.
Blaize Ward came up to the plate as the go-ahead run but flew out to the right fielder for the final out.
Mizzou will travel for the second game of a home-and-home against Missouri State at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Springfield. The Tigers took a 5-2 win over the Bears last Tuesday at Taylor Stadium.