A first look at Missouri baseball ahead of Friday’s season opener
BRANSON MO NEWS: The Missouri baseball team hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament as a member of the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers will try to break their five-year streak of missing out on the postseason when the 2018 season begins at 6 p.m. Friday against Florida International in Miami.Missouri finished 36-23 and with a 14-16 SEC record in 2017, its first year under coach Steve Bieser.The Tigers saw immediate progress overall under Bieser, who came to Columbia from Southeast Missouri State, and rattled off a 20-game win streak before entering SEC play. They pulled off a surprising 12-7 slugfest win against Texas A&M in the first round of the double-elimination SEC Tournament before having their season end with back-to-back losses to LSU and South Carolina.
Beginning Friday, Missouri will play eight games in 10 days in Florida — its three-game series against Florida International, a single game in Coral Gables against Miami and a four-game set against Northeastern in Fort Myers to round out the trip.With the exception of a March 13 home game against Wichita State, the Tigers will again benefit from a less-than-daunting nonconference slate. Three days after playing the Shockers, though, conference play begins at LSU’s raucous Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge.The Tigers’ toughest SEC series will likely be a three-game set against Florida in Gainesville from April 13-15. The Gators were picked first in the SEC East and chosen by 12 of 14 SEC head coaches to win the conference title. MU was picked to finish sixth in the Eastern Division.In the offseason, Missouri quite literally leveled its playing field. AstroTurf replaced the old grass that graced the Simmons Field infield and stretches from home plate into the shallowest part of the outfield. For its 31 home games, Missouri will be playing what Bieser on Tuesday called “pressure baseball,” …
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