Mizzou takes Wood Bat Classic at TR Hughes Ballpark
TR Hughes Ballpark
On my first run since my knee surgery back in October, things were going as expected. After about 1 mile, I hit TR Hughes and noticed the game was going on. I went ahead and stopped in and Mizzou was up in the 7th inning by the score of 7-4. I watched Mizzou close out the victory over an overmatched Eastern Illinois squad from the Ohio Valley Conference.
I don’t know if it was the wood bats, but both squads seemed to have difficulty driving the ball. It was a cold night, so that might have had something to do with it as well. The thing that really caught my eye was the pitching both teams had in the last couple of innings. I watch many Frontier League games at TR Hughes, and each pitcher that trotted out to the mound for Mizzou or Eastern Illinois were throwing harder than the majority of Frontier League pitchers. They were all throwing gas. I wish I would have had my radar gun to see what the actual velocity was, but they all seemed to be hitting in the 90’s with their fastballs.
The one thing that really shocked me was the bad field conditions at TR Hughes. It’s been raining buckets, so you would think the field would be in great shape, but I guess the grounds crew is not working too hard at this time. Rascals start the season later this month and are hosting a celebrity softball game between former Cardinals and Blues players on Saturday May 9th. You would think they would want to have the field in better shape at this time.
The celebrity softball game should be fun and tickets are just $10 if purchased beforehand or $15 on the day of the game. The former players will be signing autographs before the game as well.
Heading to a bunch of baseball this week. I’ll be catching the Cards against the Phillies tonight and tomorrow and the Pirates on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully a good story will come from the experiences.
Matt Wilson
Filed Under: Baseball • Uncategorized
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I’m not so sure EIU was necessarily “overmatched”. They have been getting some votes in a few polls recently and have had a great season so far. I think that win is a good one for Mizzou. Watch for EIU once the OVC tourney comes around. I’m hoping they match up against SEMO again – there were some great games this past weekend down at Capaha. I think the free beer made the SEMO loses go down a bit smoother…
http://www.eiupanthers.com/news/2009/5/4/BSB_0504093515.aspx?path=baseball
Also, I’ll be catching the Reds/Cards game in Cincy on Sunday – I’ll try to write a post early next week about it…
Paul,
I agree with you that EIU is a top notch OVC team. I believe they were 30-13 going into the Mizzou game and Mizzou was 24-21. Mizzou’s pitching just seemed to overpower the EIU hitters in the last 3 innings. Only one ball made it out of the infield and most were not on the ground. That’s the great thing about baseball, anyone can beat anyone on any given day.
Have fun in Cincy! I know most people don’t like that ballpark, but I love it.
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