Missouri 2025 SEC Baseball Tournament Exit Interview

(Tuscaloosa News photo)

By Jake Mastroianni

SEC Tournament Result: L, 4-1 vs. Alabama

Final Record: 16-39

The preseason pick to finish last in the SEC lived up to those expectations, but it was even worse than most expected. It’s difficult in a league where so many teams have such high expectations, and Missouri is the one team that gets picked on. 

For a while it looked like they wouldn’t win a single SEC game until a surprising sweep over Texas A&M in the second-to-last weekend of the regular season. But that would be the only 3 wins they gathered in conference play. 

With a team lacking depth, Missouri couldn’t afford many injuries, and they got the biggest one of all before the season even started as their top starting pitcher Javyn Pimental missed the entire year after having Tommy John surgery in early February. 

And while pitching kept them in games during the 2024 season, without Pimental, Sam Horn, and Daniel Wissler for most of the season, the pitching was a disaster. They finished with the highest ERA in the conference at 9.28 – nearly 3 points higher than the next best pitching staff, and over 4 points higher than the 13th best ERA in the SEC. 

Offensively, it certainly wasn’t great as they scored the fewest runs in the conference, but that group was respectable enough to win games if they got any contributions from the pitching staff. 

Jackson Lovich led the team with a .354 average and 12 home runs through the regular season. And they got surprise contributions from freshman Tyler Macon (.273 AVG, .396 OPB, 7 SB). 

In order to keep up in the SEC, they’ll need to find more power. They finished last in the conference with 52 home runs and a .417 slugging percentage, and they struck out the second-most times. 

If you’re not going to hit a bunch of home runs, you have to find other ways to get it done, and they were sixth in the conference in stolen bases. But they just didn’t get on base enough to really press the issue and use that speed. 

What’s next

It’s the end of a miserable season in what will always be an uphill battle for Missouri in the SEC. Assuming head coach Kerrick Jackson survives for another year, he’ll have to hit the portal hard to bring in the amount of talent and depth needed to compete in the SEC. 

There is a chance the pitching staff could be much improved if Javyn Pimental is able to get a medical redshirt and return for another year. He and Sam Horn could form a solid 1-2 punch in the weekend rotation next year. 

And if they’re able to bring back Wil Libbert after a solid freshman season in which he struck out 53 batters in 48.2 innings, then Missouri could be looking at its best rotation in quite some time. 

Lovich has a decent chance of getting taken in the upcoming MLB Draft, but getting him to return for a senior season – and stay at Missouri – would give them an anchor offensively. 

Cayden Nicoletto could potentially return for one more season and would give them a veteran hitter. Lovich, Nicoletto, Macon, Gehrig Goldbeck, and Chris Patterson have the potential to be a solid lineup mixed with youth and experience.

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