Ryan Howard (photo/Mizzou)

Ryan Howard (photo/Mizzou)

The Mizzou baseball team scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take the lead and go on for a 5-3 win over the SLU Billikens on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

Only 724 fans turned out to watch the game.

Saint Louis falls to 12-13.  Mizzou improves to 15-12.

The Tigers defense turned five double plays.  Junior SS Ryan Howard went 1-for-3 in the game and is now on a three game hit-streak. Howard has reached base safely now in five consecutive games.

Mizzou forced The Billiken’s Brett Shimanovsky’s to give up his first earned run in his last five game appearances. Shimanovsky had not allowed any earned runs since March 11th against Purdue.

With a single in the first, SLU’s Trent Leimkuehler extended his hitting streak to 10 games.  Leimkuehler was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a double.

SLU’s Braxton Martinez was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI. It is his 12th multi-hit game of the season.