The no. 8 seed Missouri Tigers defeated the no. 1 seed Texas Longhorns 2-1 in the Big 12 Championship tournament for the second time to advance to the title game on Sunday in Oklahoma City.
Coming into the tournament as the last-place seed you wouldn't have thought the Missouri Tigers (26-31) would make a whole lot of noise in the Big 12 Championship at RedHawks field in Oklahoma City. But they have made their presence felt as they defeated the Co-Regular season Big 12 champion Texas Longhorns (43-14) twice to advance to the title game on Sunday.
Missouri starting pitcher Kelly Fick went seven innings giving up just four hits, walking none and striking out three. Phil McCormick picks up the save for Missouri, pitching the final 1.2 innings with four strikeouts and not allowing a hit.
Jesse Santo's two-out RBI double in the 2nd inning gave the Tigers the 1-0 lead, scoring Jonah Schmidt who led off the inning with a single. Blake Brown's leadoff homerun in the 7th inning gave the Tigers the 2-1 lead and proved to be the game-winner for a Missouri Tigers team that shocked most of the crowd at RedHawks field that wasn't wearing black and yellow.
After losing to Texas in the morning game 6-1, the Missouri Tigers would not give-in and they fought to earn the right to play for a championship after a sub-par regular season. They are playing their best baseball at the right time.
The Tigers will take on the Aggies of Texas A&M for the Big 12 Championship Sunday afternoon at 1pm. The Tigers won two of three regular season games with the Aggies.