Missouri softball falls to big-hitting Florida in SEC Softball Tournament championship
The wait goes on in Columbia, Missouri.
No. 2-seeded Florida defeated Missouri softball 6-1 in the 2024 SEC Softball Tournament championship on Saturday in Auburn, Alabama. The Tigers were hunting the first SEC tournament title since the school joined the conference in 2012.
The game promised to pit a pair of contrasting styles. Missouri entered the championship with a 0.95 ERA through three games in the tournament, after holding each of their opponents to a single run. Florida, to the contrary, fielded a lineup with a .356 average. The Gators rank No. 5 in the country for team batting average.
So … there was the task: Keep ’em quiet.
Mizzou couldn’t manage that.
The typically trustworthy Missouri defense faltered early in the bottom of the second, allowing runners to reach on a fielding error by shortstop Jenna Laird and a miscommunication between Laird and center fielder Alex Honnold. Krings then let third baseman Ariel Kowalewski walk. A wild pitch put Gators on second and third.
Then, the first hammer fell.
Nine-hitter Mia Williams took a fastball over the top of the Jane B. Moore Field scoreboard, and the Gators had an early 3-0 lead.
And the big-hitting Gators kept piling on.
In the bottom of the fifth, Skylar Williams hit a two-run home run over center off freshman reliever Marissa McCann to put the Gators up 6-1.
Earlier, Korbe Otis, a .467 hitter, tripled on an 0-2 pitch to lead off the fourth, and quickly made it home on a fielding error from second baseman Maddie Gallagher.
Florida racked up six efficient hits. Missouri’s defense, which had not been called for an error all week long, finished the title game with three errors.
If the Tigers weren’t going to keep the UF bats at bay, they had to find a way to get the bats, which had put eight runs across in 22 innings in Auburn, to wake up.
That didn’t quite materialize, either.
The Tigers got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth, when Stefania Abruscato hit a sacrifice fly to center to drive home Maddie Gallagher from third. One at-bat later, Kara Daly fouled out to strand catcher Julia Crenshaw 60 feet from home.
The run was the outlier.
The Tigers stranded runners on the corners in the sixth, part of eight players left on base across the game.
Missouri took until its eight-hitter to get a player on board, when Claire Cahalan and Kayley Lenger singled and bunt-singled, respectively, to get aboard. Lenger’s bunt reached right field on some Florida fielding miscommunication, which likely could have allowed Cahalan to advance to third. Laird was then robbed on the warning track and Honnold flew out to right field, and the inning, and the much-needed scoring chance, was over.
Now, Missouri will wait and see its regional future. The Tigers seem to be a lock to host an NCAA Regional at Mizzou Softball Stadium, and are in the conversation for an NCAA Super Regional. The selection show will air at 6 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri softball falls to Florida in SEC Tournament championship
