Aggies complete the dominant road sweep over Missouri behind early inning offense

In the top of the third inning, the plastic wrapper of a hot dog was blown onto the field and picked up by the batboy for the Texas A&M Aggies. That drew the biggest cheer of the day from the Mizzou contingent at Taylor Stadium on Sunday who watched the Tigers lose 14-3 in the third straight game where the Aggies took it right to the front door that is the Missouri pitching staff and did so early. Down by eleven after allowing seven in the top of the third, Missouri (17-12, 1-8 SEC) found themselves in a spot that’s been all too familiar the past three games.

More specifically, the third straight game where the Tigers have been trailing by at least eight runs before the fourth inning rolls around. The clock striking midnight before the halfway point hits hasn’t been a theme that’s been so prevalent up to this point in SEC play for Missouri. Tigers coach Kerrick Jackson has emphasized multiple times in the past, the importance of putting up “zeros” as a pitching staff.

As exciting and blistering as the Tigers’ comeback against UIC was, after being down 12-1 past three, it can’t be expected to be the norm once top 25 opposition rolls into town. Last season, it was the Tigers who rolled into College Station and picked up not only the three-game sweep, but their first SEC wins of the season, capped off by a 10-1 victory in the series finale. A&M well and truly pulled the reversal and in dominant fashion at that, also encapsulating its not sometimes how you finish a game, its how you start.

“We just flush it,” Jackson said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to look at what we didn’t do well — which this weekend was pitching — and understand what that means. Next week, we have to pitch it better than we did.