Mizzou ace Tanner Houck will try to keep season alive against Vanderbilt

Next summer, Tanner Houck probably will be a first-round pick in baseball’s annual draft, but he’s getting a taste for the big-league workload right now at Missouri.

Houck will make his third straight start on four days’ rest at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday when the No. 11 seed Tigers play No. 6 seed Vanderbilt in the opening game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament from Hoover, Ala., on the SEC Network.

“He’s getting a feel for what it’s going to be like to be a professional pitcher, but he’s physically capable of handling it,” Mizzou coach Tim Jamieson said Monday on the SEC Baseball Tournament Coaches’ Media Teleconference.

The Tuesday portion of the SEC tourney is single elimination. The winners advance to an eight-team, double-elimination bracket.

“We know we have to go with Tanner the first game, and I think Tanner’s going to be fine …,” Jamieson said. “Obviously, we need to put whatever we can into the first game to win it and then see where we are after that — who we used and who’s available.”

The Tigers (26-29, 9-21 SEC) are 0-13 against the Commodores (41-15, 18-12 SEC) since joining the SEC, including a three-game sweep earlier this season, and have been outscored 108-34 in those games.

Jamieson hopes that history versus Vandy — which is ranked sixth in the USA Today national coaches’ poll and will counter with its No. 3 starter, right-hander Patrick Raby (6-1, 2.91 ERA) — will inspire Mizzou.

“I hope there’s plenty of motivation for that,” Jamieson said.

It’s the third time in four seasons Missouri has qualified for the SEC tourney and the second straight year.

The Tigers are 1-3 in conference tourney play. The lone win came against South Carolina in the single-elimination, play-in game last spring.

Missouri, which lost its 2013 play-in game, blew a 6-2 lead entering the seventh against Vanderbilt and was eliminated by Alabama in the 2015 tourney.

Houck pitched well but took the loss against the Crimson Tide, allowing four runs in eight innings and striking out 10 as a true freshman.

Houck was saddled with a no decision March 26 against the Commodores despite nine shutout innings.

He earned Louisville Slugger national player of the week honors for a two-hit, 14-strikeout gem, but the Tigers lost 2-0 in 11 innings.

In 99  1/3 innings, Houck (5-5, 2.99 ERA) has struck out 100, allowing 77 hits and 26 walks.

Starting pitching hasn’t been Missouri’s Achilles’ heel this season.

“The main thing is the number of experienced guys that played a lot last year and came back in the middle of our lineup,” Jamieson said. “We didn’t think they were necessarily great hitters, but we thought they’d be guys who were capable of hitting .270, .280 and maybe a couple guys move up a little bit ahead of that. We’ve had trouble scoring runs, much like we did last year.”

Sophomore catcher Brett Bond is batting .224, though he does have a career-high seven home runs and upped his average to .252 in conference.

Meanwhile, sophomore outfielder Trey Harris is batting .217 and sophomore designated hitter/third baseman Shane Benes is batting only .201, including a .144 mark in SEC play.

“Offensively, we’ve just got to get hot,” Jamieson said. “We haven’t had a point in the year where we’ve had multiple guys in the lineup hot at the same time, but we’re still playing, so anything could happen. That’s what you shoot for.”

Senior first baseman Zach Lavy has been a notably productive exception. He’s batting .333 with 18 doubles, eight triples, eight home runs and 54 RBIs.

Lavy leads the SEC in extra-base hits (34) and slugging percentage (.610) and leads the nation in triples.

Additionally, junior shortstop Ryan Howard sits at .291, while junior center fielder Jake Ring leads the Tigers with a .336 average in SEC action.

Missouri also has been without “our three best bullpen arms the whole year,” Jamieson said. “And you can’t win in this league without the ability to win the back half of the game.”

But he knows from past experience in the Big 12 Tournament that it’s possible to catch lightning in a bottle and a conference-tourney run.

“You have to believe that you can,” Jamieson said. “We’ve got to be very efficient with our pitching staff. Our guys that go out there are going to have to be able to pitch on short rest and to be able to give us a lot of innings.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Mizzou ace Tanner Houck will try to keep season alive against Vanderbilt."