Missouri softball defeats Ole Miss to advance to SEC Softball Tournament quarterfinals
The Tigers are moving on to the quarterfinals.
No. 5-seeded Missouri softball defeated No. 13 Ole Miss 3-1 in its opening game of the SEC Softball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon in Auburn, Alabama, behind a gem from starting pitcher Laurin Krings and an offensive outburst in the third inning.
MU center fielder Alex Honnold drove a two-run double off the wall at right-center in the bottom of the third to get Jenna Laird and Kayley Lenger across the plate and open the scoring. Before that, Lenger was walked and Laird had managed the Tigers’ lone hit of the contest to that point — a single to center.
Later in the inning, Columbia local and Rock Bridge High grad Abby Hay worked four straight fouls before singling to left center to drive home Honnold and give MU a three-run lead.
Both run-scoring hits came with two outs.
Krings, meanwhile, kept the Rebels near-silent.
The Missouri ace pitched six innings of three-hit ball. The lone blemish to her line came on a seventh-inning, leadoff solo shot from Ole Miss designated player Aynslie Furbush. Before that, Krings allowed just a single extra-base hit in the win when second baseman Angelina DeLeon’s double fell a few feet short of leaving Jane B. Moore Field in the top of the fourth.
Beyond that, Mizzou’s defense fielded 10 ground balls and caught seven fly balls throughout the 22 batters Krings faced. Krings allowed just one walk and only needed one strikeout to keep the Rebels dormant.
After Mississippi's solo home run cut the lead to two runs, the Tigers, as they often do, turned to Taylor Pannell, who leads the nation with 12 saves this season, in the seventh inning to close the game. She brought the tying run to the plate with a walk but drew a groundout and a pair of pop-ups to end the game and earn her 13th save.
Missouri moves on to face No. 4-seeded Arkansas in the quarterfinals of the SEC Softball Tournament. The game is scheduled to begin at approximately 1 p.m. Thursday and will air on SEC Network.
During the regular season, Missouri dropped its series against the Razorbacks in early April, suffering three-run losses in both the series opener and finale, with a 12-3, five-inning win wedged in between.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri defeats Ole Miss, reaches SEC Softball Tournament quarters
