Kansas bests Mizzou in slugfest, fifth straight defeat for Tigers

A regular-season record crowd of 3,207 at Taylor Stadium saw a contest on an afternoon with little cloud cover. For all nine innings, Columbia had enough wind to launch a combined five home runs between the two rivals, four of which were Jayhawks homers over the wall in what was ultimately a Border War defeat for Mizzou. The defeat marked the fifth straight for Kerrick Jackson’s group, all coming on home turf.

In terms of promotion, Mizzou brought all of the stops. The 2. 99 beer and hot dogs, flashy throwback hats for all Missouri students living in residential dorms and the in person appearance of several MU athletes in major revenue sports.

One in particular, Tigers running back Jamal Roberts, who’s 63-yard game-sealing touchdown against the Jayhawks back in September, which fired up the Tiger contingent and the thousands of students who made the rowdy atmosphere. The same energy wasn’t quite brought on the field. At least not enough for the first three innings for the Tigers, as the Jayhawks took a commanding 6-0 lead, getting to the Tigers’ pitching early.

Then, the fourth inning rolled around, and a small spark set gasoline to the eight-run heater that Kerrick Jackson’s offense went on against three total pitchers from Kansas, including two pitching changes to the delight of the sellout crowd. THE EIGHT-RUN RALLY After three innings of two total hits and no runners left in scoring position, a strikeout from the freshman Blaize Ward seemed just to continue the story that was being written. A walk from freshman outfielder Donovan Jordan brought up the freshman catcher Juliomar Campos, who was making his third start of the season.