Junior right-hander Tanner Houck wasn’t sharp after a 10-day layoff, but it didn’t matter thanks to Missouri baseball’s thundering bats and junior reliever Andy Toelken in a 12-7 win that keeps flickering postseason hopes alive for coach Steve Bieser’s debut season.
The Tigers (36-21) entered an opening-round matchup Tuesday against Texas A&M at the SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala., with the second-worst team batting average (.219) in conference play.
It profiled as a rough matchup with the Aggies, who boasted the top ERA (3.65) during the conference season.
Mizzou pounded out 12 runs on 11 hits, including three home runs, and benefited from seven walks in a lopsided win against A&M (36-21), which outscored Bieser’s bunch 25-4 in a three-game sweep last month in Columbia.