How Missouri softball revived a struggling offense to win Alabama series finale
Jenna Laird knew what was on the way.
“We can be very good,” the Missouri softball shortstop said on Saturday. “And it’s gonna come soon, I promise.”
Laird and her MU teammates had just been blanked by Alabama, dropping Saturday’s home game 4-0 after failing to muster any offense in a defensive battle that was tied heading into the ninth inning. The Crimson Tide had turned in all of their runs, and the Tigers had no answer, dropping the second game of the weekend series.
It was a similar story on Friday, when Missouri fell with a matching 4-0 loss. The two defeats had dropped MU to 1-10 in SEC play, and the only time the Tigers had scored more than three runs in league competition had been in their 7-3 win at Florida on March 17.
The lack of offensive success was frustrating everyone in the locker room, including head coach Larissa Anderson.
“We’re not being very selective aggressive,” Anderson said. “It’s being selective aggressive and hitting good pitches. You can say you want your team to be aggressive, but you don’t want to swing at everything.”
The Tigers had faced Montana Fouts, one of the nation’s top pitchers in the first two games. Despite only having five hits the entire game, they’d still had a chance to win on Saturday, with an unfruitful walk-off opportunity with a runner in scoring position passing by in the seventh.
Pitcher Laurin Krings was excellent, going 8.2 innings. The defense was excellent, creating double plays and keeping runs off the board until the very end.
But the offense kept struggling. Even so, Anderson saw the potential.
“The floodgates are gonna open up,” she said. “It’s gonna be, watch out. All we need is a couple people to hit the ball hard and then it’s going to take the pressure off, but when you have a team that’s not hitting the ball well, everybody feels the pressure that they have to get the job done.”
Those floodgates finally burst on Sunday. In the series finale, the Tigers weren’t able to score through the first two innings against Alabama pitcher Alex Salter, and were down by three entering the bottom of the third, before Kara Daly came up to bat with two runners on.
Daly doubled, which scored the first MU run of the series. Then Maddie Gallagher scored a runner on a groundout, before Katie Chester scored Daly on a double and Chantice Phillips homered to make the score 5-3.
Missouri won going away from there. The game didn’t even make it to the seventh inning, with the Tigers earning an 11-3 run-rule win after five.
Phillips stood as Missouri’s offensive star during Sunday’s win. She went 3-for-3 from the plate, including the home run and a double, finishing with four RBIs.
Now the challenge will be making Sunday’s performance a regular part of the Missouri softball experience. If the Tigers can do that, they have the potential to right the ship late in SEC play, especially given the quality of their pitching and defense.
“When we step on the field, we know that our defense is better than any defense out there,” Laird said. “We’re very confident with it. We know that if someone gets on first, we’re gonna turn a double play. ... It’s just the offense that has to be picked up.”
With Sunday’s win, Missouri moved to 22-16 on the season, 2-10 in SEC play. The Tigers will be back in action on Thursday, taking on LSU in Baton Rouge.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri softball: Offense revived in Alabama series finale win
