Missouri pitcher and quarterback Sam Horn delivers a pitch during an SEC tournament game against Alabama on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, in Hoover, Ala.
So ends a dismal season on the diamond for Missouri baseball.
The Tigers lost 4-1 to Alabama in the SEC tournament on Tuesday, wrapping up Mizzou鈥檚 worst campaign in decades 鈥 and maybe more than a century 鈥 with a 16-39 record.
Sam Horn, the two-sport athlete for whom minding his P鈥檚 and Q鈥檚 meant splitting time as a pitcher and a quarterback this spring, started the game and tossed three shutout innings, working himself into and out of a bases-loaded jam in the third before exiting. Catcher Mateo Serna鈥檚 solo home run in the top of the fourth inning wrapped around the right field foul pole to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
A two-run bottom of the fourth put the Crimson Tide in front, and they tacked on a run in both the seventh and eighth innings while holding MU hitless (0 for 9) with runners in scoring position.
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The Tigers are without a postseason victory since 2017, but that鈥檚 hardly the gravest historical benchmark for this season鈥檚 struggles.
Missouri鈥檚 three regular-season SEC wins 鈥 all of which came in a road sweep of preseason No. 1 Texas A&M, oddly enough 鈥 are the fewest since the conference moved to 30 league games in 1996. No team had won fewer than five in the 30-game era.
Of Mizzou鈥檚 27 SEC losses, the first 24 came consecutively. MU lost more of those games by double digits (11) than by a margin that earned the other team a save (seven losses by three or fewer runs).
The Tigers鈥 .291 overall winning percentage is the program鈥檚 worst since 1959, when record books denote a 3-17 record. As it played out, however, the 鈥59 season wasn鈥檛 that bad. Mizzou, fresh off a national runner-up finish in 鈥58, went 16-4 on the field 鈥 only to forfeit 13 of those victories because it used an ineligible player, leading to the record-low .150 winning percentage.
That context makes 2025 Missouri鈥檚 worst baseball season without an asterisk since 1901, when Cy Young won the pitching triple crown in the American League and Missouri went 3-9 in a season with no record of when or where games were played.
Injuries, particularly to the pitching staff, held back MU in 2025, and coach Kerrick Jackson frequently focused on trying to get his team to play 鈥済ood baseball,鈥 plain and simple.
鈥淲e鈥檙e an immature club that鈥檚 maturing as the year鈥檚 gone on,鈥 he told the SEC Network broadcast during Tuesday鈥檚 tournament game, citing the sweep of A&M as a step forward amid other clear negatives.
Jackson has been in regular contact with athletics director Laird Veatch as the season has gone on, and the latter doesn鈥檛 seem overly concerned about the baseball performance, given Missouri鈥檚 place in the sport鈥檚 landscape.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard when you go through a year like this,鈥 Veatch said last week. 鈥淥bviously, you had a couple injuries to key arms earlier in the season, and those things can鈥檛 be excuses in our world 鈥 but it鈥檚 challenging, right? It鈥檚 an uphill battle, particularly in that sport because 鈥 and I鈥檝e said this before 鈥 we鈥檙e behind. We鈥檙e behind in what we鈥檝e invested when you look at our stadium compared to the other stadiums. We don鈥檛 look the same.鈥
To that end, Mizzou is seeking bids for a Taylor Stadium project that would complete the artificial turf playing surface at an expected cost of $1.3 million to $1.5 million. It鈥檒l take more than just a nicer-looking field to improve the stock of the program, though, which is also part of Veatch鈥檚 understanding.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got to support Kerrick,鈥 Veatch said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to support the program. We鈥檝e got to keep investing more, make progress. We need to get back on track.鈥
That sort of rhetoric is part of why it would be quite surprising for Missouri to fire Jackson after his second season at the school. Dismissing Jackson now would cost MU roughly $1.7 million, which would be a hefty expenditure that could be used on more direct infrastructure improvements to the baseball facilities 鈥 or go toward the payroll of a revenue-generating sport, should that better align with the athletics department鈥檚 trajectory.
Veatch is optimistic Mizzou can return to being competitive in the SEC in due time.
鈥淲e are going to expect to win, and eventually, we want to expect to win at the high levels,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e want to play for championships. But you also have to understand where you鈥檙e at and take steps towards that.鈥
Softball suffers losses in portal, too
MU softball, which also struggled en route to a 25-31 record with only six SEC wins, was already in line to lose its top three hitters in terms of batting average as they ran out of eligibility. A couple of immediate transfer portal entries will further complicate coach Larissa Anderson鈥檚 rebuild.
Infielder Madison Walker, who led the Tigers with 18 home runs in 2025, has entered the transfer portal. So too has pitcher Taylor Pannell, who is still the NCAA鈥檚 active leader in saves after tying the single-season record for saves in 2024.
Their exits add to the urgency of this offseason for a Mizzou team that will need to clear the bar of making the NCAA tournament next season, after finishing as the only SEC team not to make the field in 2025.
