Home turf
After a 40-win season, Mizzou baseball hosts NCAA play
Mizzou junior Evan Frey and teammates celebrate a run at Taylor Stadium, where the Tigers will host an NCAA regional tournament. Above, sophomore Aaron Crow delivers a pitch. Photos by James Yates; photo illustration by Josh Nichols.
A little after this time last year, Columbia was buzzing about Mizzou baseball. The team won its NCAA regional tournament in Malibu, Calif. — ensuring a spot among the nation’s top 16 teams — and people around campus and the city were talking. The only problem was that the Tiger players were all the way across the country, so they missed out on the buzz.
Not so in 2007. After winning 40 games and finishing second in the Big 12, Mizzou baseball was picked to host an NCAA regional tournament (see sidebar for update) for the first time in more than 40 years and the first time ever in the current tournament format. The buzz is back, and the 14th-ranked Tigers are here to enjoy it.
“You look at the teams that traditionally have hosted regionals, and you’re talking about the storied names in college baseball,” says Coach Tim Jamieson, who also garnered Co-Big 12 Coach of the Year honors. “To be part of that group now is exciting. I think it’s another step forward for our program.”
Jamieson’s team took many steps forward this year. After being picked in the preseason to finish eighth in the Big 12, Mizzou won 19 conference games — the most for Mizzou since the Big 12’s inception — to earn runner-up status. The team also earned road warrior status by entering hostile territory and winning every conference series it played on the road, including victories over conference leaders Texas, Nebraska and Oklahoma State, among others.
The Tigers finished the season strong, and Jamieson hopes the team can carry that momentum even further in postseason play. “We do play our best baseball at the end,” he says, “and that’s certainly what we strive for.”