Missouri baseball wins home opener

This season, it is different when Zane Taylor walks up to the plate.

The six times he appeared at the plate in Missouri’s 18-5 win over Illinois State on Wednesday in the Tigers’ home opener at Taylor Stadium, the crowd of 879 heard unique music playing over the loudspeakers. He does not have rock or rap for his walkout tune, like many of the other Tigers players. Instead, Taylor changed his music to one of the first songs in the “Boondock Saints”, his favorite movie. The music is softer. It lacks drums, screaming electric guitar or deep bass beats.

“I just wanted something a little more original,” Taylor, a senior outfielder, said. “My freshman and sophomore and junior year, I had (alternative rock group) Incubus or something like that, and I just thought it was time to change something maybe.”

Taylor picked out the song about a month ago, before Missouri opened the season Feb. 9.

“I’ve seen the movie for several years now,” Taylor said. “But I was just watching it by myself and I was like, ‘What the heck, let’s go out on a limb and pick something different this year.’”

Taylor stood out at the plate Wednesday for another reason: a .488 batting average. He came into the game batting .429, but a 3-for-4 performance gave it a significant boost. Taylor, who bats second in the lineup, reached base five of six times, including two walks. Through the first two innings, the Tigers stranded six runners. But then Missouri (6-4) got back on track and finished with 19 hits against the Redbirds (0-5).

Missouri coach Tim Jamieson said the failure to get runners in slightly frustrated him.

“Any time, conference especially, any time you leave the bases loaded and you only have two runs to show for it, it generally comes back and bites you a little bit,” Jamieson said. “But the guys stayed focused the entire game and swung the bats well.”

Missouri catcher Jacob Priday agreed with Jamieson’s assessment.

“We strung together a bunch of hits tonight,” he said. “You look at the scoreboard, (and) there’s only one inning where we didn’t score. With two outs in the sixth inning, designated hitter John McKee crushed a three-run home run over right center field fence to put the Tigers ahead 12-5. McKee, who had two strikes, battled the pitcher during the at-bat, fouling off pitch after pitch. He went 2-for-4 with four RBIs.

“I thought McKee’s home run was the backbreaker,” Jamieson said. “I thought once that ball left the ballpark, cause he battled and battled and battled, and had two strikes, and you could just feel the wind taken out of their sails in that at-bat. That was the key at-bat right there.”

Taylor will be walking up to bat to his music when the Tigers play Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2-5) at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. He said he wants one thing to change about his song.

“I wish they’d play it a little bit louder,” he said.