Ryan Howard took his stance, loaded and fired a line drive into the back of the batting practice tunnel.
While his coach was in the next room talking to media about how the Tigers need to put this loss behind them, Howard was actually doing it –– thwacking line drive after line drive, each one harder than the last, into the back of the net. He was exorcising the bile that came with losing a nail-biter against your in-state rival.
Missouri dropped a back-and-forth 9-8 contest to Missouri State Tuesday at Taylor Stadium. The team committed three errors, including two that allowed the Bears to take the lead in the top of the ninth.