500 club: How Missouri softball pitcher Laurin Krings reached big career milestone through maturity

There’s no secret, in Larissa Anderson’s mind, to why Laurin Krings is hitting new heights. The Missouri softball coach saw it post-game in the locker room.

While the No. 12-ranked Tigers team celebrated its 5-2 win over No. 25 Auburn on Friday at Mizzou Softball Stadium  — MU’s first game of SEC play and its home opener — Krings was with Missouri’s strength coach, getting treatment to prepare for her next trip to the circle.

“She's learning how to become a pitcher,” Anderson said. “And that's really the art and the craft of being able to throw competitively rather than just (being) a thrower. She's understanding more the maturity behind where the ball needs to be to be successful and not just thinking she can just power over people and try to overpower them.”

Krings had just thrown nine strikeouts on two-hit ball to holster the Auburn offense and help carry Missouri (19-2, 1-0 SEC) to victory. She tossed 65 strikes on 99 total pitches in the complete-game win.

Friday night’s gem also brought about a career milestone for the Missouri ace: In the third inning of the win, Krings, who held Auburn to two runs on two-hit ball, tossed the 500th strikeout of her Missouri career in the third inning.

It was her third K of the day, and she threw six more to holster the Auburn (12-3-1, 0-1) offense, taking her career tally to 506. She is just the eighth Missouri pitcher in history to reach the milestone and the first since Chelsea Thomas (2009-13).

Krings had an idea that No. 500 was near. Anderson had told her she was getting close about a week earlier.

Then, in the first at-bat of the third inning, it came, when Auburn catcher Skylar Elkins got caught swinging. Play briefly stopped as there was an announcement made at Mizzou Softball Stadium. Krings’ Missouri teammates gathered around her in the circle to celebrate the moment.

Play resumed, and Krings polished off a 1-2-3 inning.

“It's just pretty cool. It's like, I do this for my team,” Krings said, “and I really will do anything I can to get them to where we want to go.”

The lone blip Friday night was a pair of first-pitch doubles in the fourth inning that both scored runners from second and tied the game at 2-all.

Anderson had seen Krings controlling the inner-half of the plate, but Auburn had adjusted, so the coach told the starter to “live outside” until further notice.

Krings adjusted, and her changeup started working. Auburn couldn’t match her move, as Krings retired the visiting Tigers’ next 11 hitters in order to end the contest.

“My mentality never really changes,” Krings said. “It’s just like, ‘OK, that happened. You can't change it now.’ It's just the next pitch, keep focused on the next pitch, and do what you can for them.”

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Krings was matched up against Maddie Penta, Auburn’s ace who carried a 0.78 ERA into Columbia, in what shaped up to be a pitcher’s duel.

But Missouri’s offense got to Penta, and it got to Penta fast, as third baseman Kara Daly sent a two-run blast over the left-field fence to open the scoring in the first inning and in MU’s fourth at-bat of the game. Four innings later, with the score tied back up at 2, catcher Julia Crenshaw sent a near-identical drive onto the hill at the back of Mizzou Softball Stadium — that time a three-run blast.

Missouri had spent the season with a hitting machine nicknamed “Penta,” Anderson said. They knew the starter could bring heat, and the Tigers spent the week preparing to “be on time for 70” miles per hour.

Six hits, three earned runs and two home runs in five innings — all season-highs for a team against Penta — later, and Missouri was in control.

Krings went toe-to-toe with one of the best in the nation, and she won the battle. The senior out of Loveland, Colorado, now has a 1.79 ERA and an 8-2 record this season.

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MU’s second game of the SEC-play-opening series against UA is at 2 p.m. Saturday in Columbia. The Tigers head into that contest at 19-2, which is their best start to a season since 2013.

Missouri and its 500-K pitcher, the first in a decade, are keen to keep that going.

“We’re just having fun. Like, we come out here and it's a game. That's how it should be played, and that's what we're doing,” Krings said. “And this group of girls we have this year is just — the chemistry is incredible. Right when they stepped on, even the freshmen, right when they stepped on the field and we practiced together for the first time, it's like, ‘OK, this is a team.’”

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Missouri softball’s Laurin Krings reached career milestone through maturity