COLUMBIA, Mo. — The coronavirus pandemic shut down a promising 2020 Missouri baseball season just as the Tigers were on the cusp of starting Southeastern Conference play. MU was taking a seven-game winning streak into a weekend series at Alabama last March when the SEC paused the season and sent word to the Tigers during their stopover at Chicago’s Midway International Airport.
Soon enough, the season was over before the Tigers swung at one pitch in an SEC game, but months later they received a consolation prize: The NCAA considered the canceled season time served in terms of the team’s postseason ban for academic violations that occurred nearly five years earlier.