MU baseballl team wins opener at Big 12 tournament

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Missouri baseball team answered its early morning wake-up call impressively on Wednesday, beating the Texas Longhorns 3-2 in 10 innings in its first game of the Big 12 Conference tournament at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City.

The victory was the fifth in a row for Missouri.

Perhaps still shaking off sleep thanks to the 9 a.m. start time, the Tigers did not score until the sixth inning when senior Jacob Priday’s two-run home run tied the game. The home run was the 16th this season for Priday, Missouri’s all-time home run leader.

The game then remained tied until Missouri catcher Trevor Coleman brought home the winning run in the bottom of the 10th with a single to right field.

“We were trying to pitch around (Coleman),” Texas coach Augie Garrido said after the game in a release. “He hit a ball out of the strike zone and through a hole. He did a good job of hitting right there. We had opportunities and their pitchers rose to the occasion.”

Rick Zagone made the start for the Tigers, but did not earn a decision while giving up two runs in 7 1/3 innings.

The junior was relieved in the top of eighth by Kyle Gibson, who entered the game with the go-ahead run on third base and only one out.

Gibson, though, retired the next two batters via a pop-out and a strike out to end the scoring threat and finished the game to earn improve his record to 9-1 this season.

Most of those victories came as a starter, but Gibson has returned to the closer position he filled last year as a freshmen in order to stabilize Missouri’s struggling bullpen.

The fourth-seeded Tigers (38-17) will continue pool play at 7:30 p.m. today against the last team to secure a spot in the tournament, eighth-seeded Oklahoma. Missouri took two of three games from the Sooners on the road this season.

Missouri was the only higher seed to prevail on Wednesday. All eight of the Big 12 Conference’s 10 baseball teams invited to this season’s tournament were in action. No. 8 seed Oklahoma upset top seed Texas A&M 4-1 in the second game of the day. The Aggies committed three errors in the game that led to all four unearned Oklahoma runs. No. 6 seed Baylor defeated No. 3 seed Nebraska 10-4, while No. 7 seed Kansas State beat No. 2 seed Oklahoma State 3-2.