Columbia News

The University of Missouri baseball team is set to host Mississippi State for its final Southeastern Conference (SEC) home series of the 2025 season. The three-game matchup will take place at Taylor Stadium in Columbia, beginning Thursday, May 15 at 6 p.m., with subsequent games scheduled for Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.

This weekend marks the seventh SEC series between the Tigers and Bulldogs. Missouri has won three of its last four series against Mississippi State since 2018. In their most recent meeting last May in Starkville, Missouri secured a narrow 4-3 victory, though Mississippi State holds a 13-7 advantage in the all-time series.

All games will be streamed live on SEC Network+, with Max Thoma and former Tiger Dylan Kelly providing commentary. Local radio coverage will be available on KTGR AM/FM and through the Varsity Network app, featuring Tex Little and Matt Michaels.

Missouri fans can purchase single-game tickets through the Mizzou Athletics ticket office or online at MUTigers.com. The university has planned several promotions: a "White Out" on Thursday encouraging fans to wear white; a summer kickoff event with a beach towel giveaway for the first 150 fans on Friday; and Senior Day festivities before Saturday’s game, honoring eleven student-athletes in an on-field ceremony starting at 1:30 p.m.

Probable pitching matchups include Brady Kehlenbrink (Missouri) facing Pico Kohn (Mississippi State) in Game 1. Starters for Missouri are yet to be announced for Games 2 and 3, while Mississippi State plans to start Evan Siary and Karson Ligon respectively.

Head coach Kerrick Jackson leads Missouri into this series after achieving his first SEC road sweep as head coach last weekend against Texas A&M—a feat that marked the program's first conference road sweep since May 2017. The Tigers have improved their defensive play recently, fielding at a .980 rate over their last nineteen games.

Offensively, junior infielder Jackson Lovich leads Missouri with a .357 batting average entering the weekend. Lovich also tops the team in triples (three), multi-hit games (seventeen), and multi-RBI performances (thirteen). He hit .392 over his last thirty-nine games and contributed significantly during last week’s sweep of Texas A&M by going eight-for-fifteen with two home runs and six RBIs.

Sophomore outfielder Kaden Peer has reached base safely in twenty-one consecutive games earlier this season and leads Missouri with twelve stolen bases. Newcomers such as Pierre Seals—who is hitting .358 over his past twenty-four contests—and Cayden Nicoletto have also made notable contributions.

On the mound, senior right-hander Kaden Jacobi has tallied forty-seven strikeouts across forty-four-and-two-thirds innings pitched this season. Graduate left-hander Ian Lohse has added forty-two strikeouts in just over thirty-three innings.

Missouri enters this series having struck out more than four hundred batters as a staff for the twenty-first time in program history. The Tigers’ running game ranks sixth in the SEC by steals per game, projecting them toward one of their top ten single-season totals.

For Mississippi State, interim head coach Justin Parker has guided his team to a record of thirty-one wins against twenty losses so far this year—including six victories from seven games since taking charge. Infielder Ace Reese leads their offense with seventeen home runs and sixty RBIs; pitcher Pico Kohn heads their rotation with one hundred strikeouts across thirteen starts.

Senior pitcher Xavier Lovett was recently named to the SEC Community Service Team for his volunteer work both locally and through programs like Team IMPACT that connect children facing serious illnesses or disabilities with college athletes. According to Wednesday’s announcement: “Lovett has been a leader in the Tigers' community service efforts since his arrival on campus as a graduate transfer nearly two years ago... Most notably, he has played an active role in Mizzou baseball's involvement with Team IMPACT.”

Saturday’s Senior Day will recognize Brock Daniels, Kadden Drew, Isaiah Frost, Jedier Hernandez, Kaden Jacobi, Ian Lohse, Seth McCartney, Cayden Nicoletto, Tony Neubeck, Pierre Seals and James Vaughn before what could be their final home appearance as Tigers.