Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson’s 2024 record didn’t show it, but there was evidence the Tigers made progress in his first year as a head coach. While the Tigers went 23-32 overall and 9-21 in the league, as Jackson points out, a few plays here and there would have noticeably flipped the Tigers record
“We came up just short a little bit at times,” Jackson says. “We were in a lot of games. Fourteen of our losses were two runs or less. And that’s making a play here or there, making a pitch here or there. And that’s against conference opponents. I talked to our team about it.
“You catch a routine fly ball and make a routine ground ball out against Kentucky and we seep them as opposed to taking one of three. At LSU, you execute a pitch, you take two of three from them. Georgia, you get a run across, you take two of three from him.
“And I think as we transition into Year 2, I think the guys that were here last year realize where we fell short and that was in our control.
“So there’s been an onus that we’ve taken in regards to hey, let’s be better, let’s play better baseball. And again, we don’t have to worry about trying to match what the other team does. All we need to do is focus on playing the best baseball we can play and everything will take care of itself.”
Missouri’s easily the league’ toughest job for reasons easily named: facilities, weather, fan support, you name it. It’s a program without an NCAA tournament appearance since the Tigers joined the SEC in 2013, though one could argue that the Tigers were deserving, but snubbed, in 2017 and 2019.
That also underlines Missouri’s perpetual problem: the Tigers just can’t catch a good break. In fact, Jackson caught one last fall when Javyn Pimental, who’d likely be the best pitcher on this staff, suffered an arm injury that required Tommy John surgery; Pimental will miss all of 2025. Infielder Gehrig Goldbeck, one of the Tigers’ key infield transfers, will be limited in the field to start the season due to injury, too.
And so the Tigers will control what they can control going into 2025, a lesson that Jackson has spent the off-season hammering to his team.
“More importantly than anything else, just play clean baseball,” Jackson says. “The game is a really simple game. We make it difficult. We make it harder than it is. You throw it, you catch it, you have quality at-bats. You play good defense. You play hard. You play smart.
“And it’s really simple. But sometimes you can get caught up into the output of things.”
THE LINEUP
Missouri had trouble scoring in SEC games last year, plating just 115 runs with a .221/.316/.329 batting line and just 21 home runs in league regular-season games. Jackson is looking for more versatility on offense this year.
“What we’re looking to do is to have athletic dudes that can run, that have the ability to hit the ball out of the yard, drive the gaps,” he says. “But if we need to play small ball, we can do all those different things. … You better have more than one way to score runs. Because if you’re limited, and they shut that down, it’s a long day for you.”
Among guys who should see regular at-bats, the Tigers have a pair of switch hitters and a good lefty-righty mix otherwise.
“We have a lot of left-handed options, and so that gives us some wiggle room to put in different lefties in the lineup base on how well they’re doing and how they fit and how they’re producing,” Jackson says. “And then we do have some right-handed options that, if we get some tough left-handed matchups, what we can put some right-handed bats in there.
Jackson’s biggest talent is Pierre Seals, the Memphis transfer that Jackson helped recruit when he was on that staff. Seals will turn 22 in July and had a breakout season at Memphis a year ago when he hit .327/.436/.554 with 10 home runs and 16 steals.
“You can’t ask for a better person,” Jackson says. “Grade ‘A’ makeup. Goes about his business the right way. Very, very tools player. It’s ’60’ raw power, right? He can go back-side as well as he can go pull-side and do it with ease. There’s no extra effort in the swing.
The right-handed-hitting Pierre could slot in right, where he could be joined by a pair of returnees in Jeric Curtis and Kaden Peer, with Peer the likely pick to play center.
Peer turned 20 over the summer after hitting .261/.363/.319 in SEC games, the on-base mark being the team’s second-best in the league.
“Kaden Peer benefitted from that experience,” Jackson says. “You know he’s done really, really well.”
Curtis took on a bigger role at Missouri after hitting .188/.235/.188 in 17 plate appearances at Texas Tech in 2023.
“You’re talking about a five-tool guy who played sparingly for us last year but he’s got a chance and he made some strides,” Jackson says of Curtis.
Gehrig Goldbeck was ticketed for shortstop when Jackson nabbed him out of Kansas City Community College. But an injury that required Tommy John surgery means that Goldbeck will likely start the year at DH. Goldbeck hit .380/.528/519 with five home runs and 63 steals in 71 tries across 532 JUCO plate appearances, a whopping 94 of which resulted in walks.
“I think he’s going to do some throwing and see where things pan out to see if he can’t, towards the latter part of the year, (play at) second base or first base,” Jackson says.
That leaves big questions as to who’ll play short.
“We’ve got some options,” Jackson says. “You’ve got Peyton Basler, who we brought in from the same junior college (as Goldbeck), who played second base there. And that’s only because Gehrig was at short. But during the course of the year, they kind of switched off a little bit, playing short and second.”
“Jackson Lovich, who is a junior for us, who came in as a shortstop out of high school, (is a possibility),” Jackson says. “But primarily last year he played first base and moved into the outfield a little bit. He’ll probably be our third baseman but he has an opportunity to go and play short.”
However, Lovich may start the year at third. He’s hit .273/.366/.505 with 11 home runs across 257 plate appearances in two years at Missouri.
If so, Basler would be the guy at short. Basler last played Division I baseball in 2022, when he hit .243/.381/.262 in 140 plate appearances at Charleston Southern.
Jedier Hernandez returns to start behind the plate after hitting .253/.342/.303 in SEC play.
The Tigers could have an up-and-coming star in last year’s backup catcher, Mateo Serna, who’ll likely be the opening-day starter at first.
“I think Mateo Serna is a guy, a sophomore switch-hitter from Miami,” Jackson says. “I think this dude has a chance to be a guy. It’s power from both sides of the plate. Came in as a catcher, he’ll probably play first base, has the ability to play third base. If we shift some things around as he continues to grow and develop I think he’s going to be a true force in this league.”
Another JUCO transfer, Connors State’s Blake Simpson, will probably start at second. He hit .409/.500/583 across 462 plate appearances there.
A pair of newcomers, freshman Trey Lawrence and JUCO transfer Cayden Nicoletto, could also help somewhere.
“High baseball IQ guy, probably one of our better-defending infielders, but he’s a freshman,” Jackson says of Lawrence. “We’ve experienced that a little bit here already, when the game just speeds up on him a little bit.”
Nicoletto has hit .394/.443/.787 with 49 home runs and 190 RBIs over 698 JUCO plate appearances spanning four years between North Iowa Area College and Columbia College.
“Early in the fall was a struggle for him,” Jackson says. “He was letting it eat every time that he stepped in the box, which is good, right? That’s why you hit 20-something home runs. But it’s now my understanding that hey, with video access and scouting reports and all of that, they’re going to know what you can’t do and they’re going to expose it. How are you going to be able to make the adjustments and be more consistent with your approach and taking advantage of the mistakes you’re going to get? And so as well progressed from the fall to the early spring, he’s really shown the ability to do that.
THE PITCHING
Former Missouri head coach Tim Jamieson will coach the pitchers again with help from staff addition Isaiah Page, who will be in his second year of coaching after spending last season at Butler. Page started one of Michigan’s three games in the College World Series final against Vanderbilt in 2019.
Jackson knows it’s not easy to get the arms the rest of the SEC gets, and he’s got a plan for that.
“We’re the Oakland As of the SEC, right?” Jackson says. “We’re got to do things a little bit differently because we don’t have the biggest budget. We don’t have the best weather. We don’t have the best facilities and stadium and all that kind of stuff. Well, we need to find that guy in high school, he’s 88 to 90 and it’s loose and he can throw strikes and he can spin the breaking ball. He could throw the change. Classic example of that is (Red Sox starting pitcher) Tanner Houck.”
Jackson says that appearances will be marked by batters faced. Carter Rustad, whom Baltimore took in the 15th round of last year’s draft, led Missouri with 65 innings pitched last season.
“You’ve got to go get outs and I’m gonna give you 18 hitters,” Jackson says he tells his starters. “And if you want to be really, really good, average 14 to 16 outs in 18 batters that you face. If you’re going to be less than that and its 10, 12, well, then you’re not getting this very far.”
It’s an old staff with several Class of 2019, 2020 and ’21 grads, but still one that’s largely untested at this level.
“We have some young guys that really have good stuff, but they don’t have the experience of being in the games in the league,” Jackson says. “We do have guys that are returning to us that have SEC experience, but they don’t have SEC experience in the roles that they’re potentially going to hold for us this year.”
Ian Lohse, who threw 13 1/3 innings in SEC games, with two starts over seven appearances, posted a 6.08 ERA in those contests. He’ll probably start the Tigers’ first game.
Brock Lucas is the likely No. 2. He’s thrown 67 innings with a 4.70 ERA over two seasons with the Tigers.
“He’s a junior, he was one of our better guys out of the ‘pen last year,” Jackson says. “Well, we’re gonna look to start him. He hasn’t had a lot of starting experience.”
Tony Neubeck, who might be the No. 3, didn’t pitch last season. He was outstanding—a 3.86 ERA over 18 2/3 innings, with 28 strikeouts and seven walks—when he last pitched for the Tigers in 2023.
Daniel Wissler, one of Missouri’s best pitchers last year, returns for a third year. He’s got a career 5.95 ERA over 59 career innings, with 58 strikeouts and 25 walks. He’ll have a big role, probably out of the bullpen, this year.
“He did start, but he didn’t really get extended in those starts,” Jackson says.
A number of right-handed returnees—Ben Smith, Ben Pedersen, Xavier Lovett, Josh McDevitt and Kaden Jacobi—could have roles again this year. Only Smith (one inning) and Pedersen (two) threw in SEC games last year. McDevitt (24 innings) and Jacobi (25 2/3) led the staff in summer innings.
Redshirt Kadden Drew was a big success at his last playing stop, when he threw 56 innings with 66 strikeouts for Paradise Valley Community College in 2023.
Sam Horn, a big-time get for Missouri when the Tigers signed him as a dual-sport athlete (he’s also a quarterback) in 2022, could return. He last threw in 2023, when he threw 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
Nicoletto isn’t listed as a pitcher on the roster, but Jackson points out that he’s had success there before.
“He’s also a guy that’s 88 to 90 off the bump with a good slider. He had Tommy John (surgery) and before Tommy John… Cayden was 93 to 95 from the left side. He didn’t pitch a lot at Columbia College because… (his coach said), ‘this dude is too valuable for me in the box for me to roll him out there on the mound and risk getting him injured,” Jackson says.
POTENTIAL STRENGTHS
Jackson found a way to compete with teams that had a massive talent edge on Missouri a year ago, losing a pair of one-run games to two College World Series participants (Kentucky and Florida) and two more to eventual national champion Tennessee. Seven players notched double-digit steals at collegiate stops last year, so perhaps the Tigers can steal a few runs on the bases. The experienced Jamieson got the most out of his arms last year, too.
POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES
The Tigers simply don’t have the pitching and hitting talent of their SEC counterparts. A schedule that includes road trips to potential national title contenders LSU, Arkansas, Florida and Texas A&M could prove to be crushing.
FINAL ANALYSIS
Everyone will pick Missouri last in the SEC, which has been the case for the better part of the last decade. But the Tigers don’t always finish there and usually find a way to compete once league play starts. Watch the pre-conference schedule of Missouri’s slate, which has been full of highs and lows for the Tigers the past few years. If Missouri can find a winning streak there and get some confidence, perhaps better things are ahead for 2025.