Mizzou baseball coach Kerrick Jackson reflects on Tigers’ first wins of SEC play
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou baseball team will get to round out the 2025 campaign with the potential of a winless conference season off their back, after a successful three-game set in College Station over the weekend.
Skipper Kerrick Jackson and company took three-straight against Texas A&M for the program's first road series sweep since 2017. After riding into Aggieland with an 0-24 Southeastern Conference record, the Tigers managed to put stun Texas A&M, who is currently fighting for a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
On Monday afternoon, Coach Jackson chatted one-on-one with ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones, following that series. He reflected on what the moment was like when his team finally broke through for a win on Friday night, courtesy of a six-run comeback in the ninth inning.
"The best part about it was I was excited for our kids. Like, in this situation, obviously with where we are in this day and age with social media and all that kind of stuff...you got all people saying all kinds of things. So, they were wearing that more than anything else, I think. So just for them to go out and play good baseball like we've been asking them to do for a year and to be able to get that win on Friday...I think it was a sense of relief for them. It was a belief-builder win for them, where they understood that the things that we've been preaching all year that, hey, if you just play clean baseball, throw strikes, have quality at-bats and play good defense, you'll put yourself in a position where you can compete with anybody," Jackson said.
Jackson added that he believes his team not only winning the series against the Aggies, but sweeping them in their house shows a lot about what his group is made of.
"When you haven't won a conference game and everywhere you turn it's been about that and we're not having the year that we're supposed to have, in this day and age of the portal, it could have been really easy for guys to throw it in and start looking forward to, you know, what the future holds for them someplace else," the leader of Tiger baseball said. "We've just constantly been trying to tell them, hey, just keep pushing forward and look to get better. Don't worry about chasing the win. Chase good baseball because chasing good baseball is something we can control. We can't control the win. We've played some games this year where we've played good baseball and haven't gotten the win, so to be able to come out in this situation and play good baseball and get the win and do it three times in a row, again, you couldn't ask for a better set up for our kids."
The biggest difference-maker in Mizzou grabbing three-straight victories over Texas A&M was pitching. The mound has been MU's vice all season long, until they arrived in College Station.
After giving up six runs in the win over the Aggies on Friday night, the Tiger pitching staff only allowed two runs in the next two games to secure the series sweep. That success came down to clutch performances from pitchers Sam Horn, Tony Neubeck, Blair Oaks alum Wil Libbert, Josh McDevitt and others. With health finally on this team's side, after a significant portion of the pitching staff had been sidelined with injuries all year, Jackson used a by-committee approach to getting it done at Blue Bell Park.
Libbert played a big role in securing the Tigers' third-straight win over the Aggies on Sunday, after throwing for 5.0 innings and only allowing one earned run. The former Falcon star struck out five batters in his best outing of the season.
"At the beginning, Wil coming out of high school with a big arm, high draft potential, he beat people with stuff. Then, coming off of Tommy John, I think early in the year, he tried to beat people with stuff and we just were constantly preaching to him, man, you have stuff, but you don't have enough stuff that you're going to beat hitters in this league, pitch-after-pitch-after-pitch. You're going to beat them with your ability to command all of your pitches with your pitch ability. Then, when the situation presents itself, because they know that you can throw multiple pitches for strikes, now you can beat them with stuff because now you have them guessing. But, when you limit them to saying, 'okay, I'm going to be on time for the fast ball because he can't get anything else over for a strike.' You're not beating guys in this league and so he's learned that he's trusted it," Jackson said.
After a morale-boosting weekend in Texas, Mizzou will return home for the final regular-season series of the year. Mississippi State will meet MU at Taylor Stadium, beginning on Thursday, May 15. After that, it will be time for the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Alabama.
As his team heads into this final stretch, Jackson spoke on his message to the group, which includes not changing their approach after finally grabbing that elusive first conference victory.
"It's easy for us to ask them to play free after some wins, but at the same time, when you haven't won, you don't have any other option but to play free. Like, if you put pressure on yourself in those situations and try to do something different, it could it could actually be worse. So, that's the one thing I can say is, yes, they want to get the win and yes, there may have been some angst to get that win, but I don't think we've been completely uptight. Specifically, when you go from Florida forward, for the most part in those weekends we've played really good baseball. We just come up short because we can't get to zero here, we can't get the big hit there. But, we've put ourselves in a position that each of those weekends, we've had an opportunity to walk out of that thing with some wins," he said.
Mizzou will hope to build on that successful weekend in College Station in the senior weekend finale against Mississippi State. First pitch in game one against the Bulldogs is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday.
