By Griffin McVeigh
The team celebrates with Andrew Beres after a home run against Pitt State (Photo via Liz Goodwin)
Year in and year out, the University of Missouri fields a baseball team to compete at the highest level of collegiate baseball. The team is a member of the Southeastern Conference and has been since 2012. Before the coronavirus shutdown, the Tigers were 11-5 and were about to begin conference play with a road series with Alabama.
What many do not know, is there is another baseball team that represents Missouri, just at a different level. Every year, there is a club level baseball team which is treated the same as any other type of club on campus. While they may just be another club on the surface, their system is more in-depth than most.
Each year, there is a fee to join the team. Money helps pay for travel, hotel, and any other accommodations the team may need throughout the season. After paying the fee, everything else is up to the player. Attendance to each game is the only event(s) that are mandatory, as practices are technically optional but heavily encouraged.
Another big difference is how they are viewed from a university standpoint. The University of Missouri will pump money into the official baseball team each year, providing bats, ball, helmets, and jerseys. The club team has to pay for all of those things themselves as they are not an officially recognized school sport.
While they do represent Missouri, the club team is not allowed to use official logos. The school requires payment from licenses in order to use them. Instead, the team just wears black jerseys that spell “Missouri” in yellow letters across the font.
Past that, the team tries to take their practices, games, and entire season as seriously as the baseball team which competes in the SEC. In a competitive conference with big-name schools such as the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Kansas Jayhawks, and the Saint Louis Billikens, if Missouri took their season lightly, their goals would not be achieved each year.
As it has with other sports across the world, the season was cut short due to the coronavirus. The club teams already had started their season and had games on the schedule through the beginning of May. Mix in a team trip to Tampa Bay over Spring Break and possible postseason implications and the virus has shut down a busy season.
Here is how the season was rolling alone, what the rest of their year would have looked like, and what next season will look like for the Missouri club baseball team.
Staring down the pitcher against Pitt State (Photo via @ Mizclubbaseball on Instagram)
How the season was going
Before the shutdown, Missouri was able to play three games against the Pitt State Gorillas, recently off a Division II club baseball national championship.
Described as the favorite to win the conference that season, Pitt State came to Columbia after taking two out of three games from seventh-ranked Iowa the weekend before. According to pitcher Joseph Gilden, Missouri was “heavy underdogs” going into the series and “knew we had a difficult series upcoming.”
The Tigers welcomed the Gorillas into their home park and starting pitcher Andrew Beres said they, “whooped their butts” throughout the three games. The final scores were 8-4, 6-1, and 15-0.
“It was a battle honestly, we thought it would be the toughest series of our season,” said Beres.
“The wins set us up to be the new conference favorites,” said Gilden.
Defeating the reigning national champions not only gave the team motivation, but it gave them hope that they were worthy of not only going on to win a conference championship but possibly a national championship.
Catching a pitch against Pitt State (Photo via @ Mizclubbaseball on Instagram)
What the season could have looked like
Filled with optimism, Missouri had their eyes set on making it to the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA) championship series.
“There is no way of telling how the season would have ended, but I have a feeling we would have handily taken down Nebraska and even had a great shot at making it to the NCBA World Series in Holly Springs, North Carolina,” said Gilden.
Before making it there, the rest of their conference was still in their way. Mainly, the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
The two schools were set to meet up in Columbia to end the regular season on May 1-3. The Cornhuskers themselves were also undefeated but had managed to get six total games in. They had three wins against Louisville, Mississippi State, and UCF, while sweeping Kansas to open their conference season.
“If we played on par with how we played in our first three games, I don’t think there would have been any excuse for us to lose,” said pitcher Joe Rossetti.
Missouri still had more than Nebraska on their schedule however, with other conference opponents to play as well. Road series against Kansas, Saint Louis, and Truman State were to come become before the Nebraska series, giving the Tigers another good amount of tests before their heavyweight series.
Beres said there was a “lot of hope and promise for what our season could have been.” “It’s a shame that it happened this year but I am just glad it was not my senior year.”
“This was my fourth year on the team, and I can honestly say that we have never had the depth and strength in the pitching rotation that we had this year,” said Rossetti. This season we had 4 pitchers who were capable of earning a starting role. We had 2-3 arms who could serve as middle relievers and eat up innings, and we had guys who could come in and close.”
“This was the most talented and dedicated team that I have ever seen on Mizzou Club Baseball,” said Gilden. “I wish it had turned out a different way but I am happy we got to play those games against Pitt State.”
With the season canceled, all they can do now is move on to next season, hoping to improve as much as they possibly can.
How are they preparing for next season
Beres is one of six returning juniors next season, as four seniors will be graduating from school this semester. While they expect to go through a normal process of the offseason, it could be rather different thanks to COVID-19.
“At the moment we are not doing too much to prepare for next season,” said Beres.
The usual process of selecting a new executive board is underway, with the president, vice president, and treasurer all graduating this semester. Each will be replaced by new upperclassmen, ones that have been with the team since their freshman year.
The unusual of their offseason will be getting players refunded for the past season. Since the team did not have to travel anywhere, players should be able to get most of their money back.
Our first order of business was to figure out how the guys would be refunded for the season, which we should be refunded almost fully since most of that goes towards away trips,” said Beres.
As for what the team will look like next season, Beres expects the same level of competitiveness and expectations to carry over into next season.
“With the core of the team coming back and us not having too many seniors leaving, I have similar expectations for next season.”
The coronavirus may have ruined Missouri’s chances of not only a conference championship but a national championship this season, but next season, the Tigers will be ready to run it back for the 2020-2021 season. As for now, all they can do is let the virus pass and hope they get their opportunity.
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