Welcome to the Morning Commute.

I had been waiting all day for this. I was ready to skip the last faculty/staff meeting of the year for this— I was going to pull it up on Zoom, calm down. I’m a good employee.

But Mother Nature, that little witch, had some other plans, and due to some severe weather on The Plains, the earlier game — 8th-seeded LSU v. top-seeded Tennessee— was moved wayyyyyy back to a 5pm start time, thus moving Mizzou’s game to an 8:07pm start and moving the other two games that should have been played on Thursday to Friday. Easy enough, right? Wrong. But we’ll get to that shortly.

I’ve been watching a lot of SEC softball these last few days, more so than I have all season, and as I have been sizing up Missouri’s competition, I’ve also paid a lot of attention to what the SEC Network analysts have had to say. I have heard so much about the Tennessees (yeah, about that...), the Floridas, the Arkansases, the Tigers of a purple & gold variety... And they’ll stop when they get to Missouri and say nice things about the turnaround, of which it has been rapid, and the pitching, of which it’s been awesome, but it seems like in their minds, they don’t quite see the CoMo Tigers as having such a terrifying roar.

Which brings me to my point. As I listened to the amazing SEC Network commentating crew on Thursday evening— featuring icons Beth Mowins, Michele Smith, Jess Mendoza, Holly Rowe, Alyssa Lang and others — talk about the Razorbacks with such gusto, with such admiration for their coach and their offense and their legacy, I thought about a song from Taylor’s new album, as it talks about being lesser known but just as dangerous. “The ‘Who’s Who’, of ‘Who’s That?’ is poised for an attack...” Sounds a lot like our scrappy Tigers, huh?

But it’s a few lines later, as her words pierce through the haunting background music, that she screams,

“Who’s afraid of little old me?”

Followed by this jab, sung in a low register, almost like a threat.

“You should be.”

It’s haunting, it’s menacing, it’s beautiful, and you know what, it perfectly encapsulates this team. The ones who were counted out — picked ELEVENTH in the preseason poll — the ones who still, despite picking up an absurd amount of road wins and the second most Top 25 wins in the whole conference, are the unknowns. The forgotten-abouts. The “they should just be happy to be in the conversations.”

But here they are, just a few innings away from getting back to the SEC Tournament semifinals for the second time in three seasons. It’s almost like.. [dramatic gasp] they belong here.

Let’s recap.

Jenna Laird, you beautiful unicorn

I cannot be more effusive of my praise of the Tigers’ lead off hitter. She’s magnificent, and has taken that s*@$ to a whole nother level in this SEC Tournament. Through about 1 ³⁄₄ games thus far, Laird is an astonishing 4-for-6 with a double, a walk, an RBI, two runs scored, and two stolen bases, to go with just one strikeout. She’s batting .667.

Taking full advantage of Arkansas starter Morgan Leinstock’s propensity to allow leadoff runners on base (they’re hitting .362), Laird smacked a leadoff single to left before successfully swiping second on a truly crazy play in which she saw the 2B coming to tag her and lifted her arm up and swung it around like a freestyle stroke. [links to video] It was glorious, and she was ruled safe on review. After Maddie Gallagher unleashed a double to left center, Laird came in to score.

And in the top of the fifth, after Arkansas had just tied the game up at one apiece, the Tigers snatched the lead right back as a perfect bunt was followed by what I swore was going to be Laird’s first home run in two years. Alas, it was a double off the wall that allowed Lenger to score and make it 2-1.

CC Cruisin

After a lackluster couple innings against South Carolina last weekend, in which Larissa Anderson attributed the humidity and “very, very heavy air” as a factor in Harrison’s inability to move her pitches and get enough rise, I was eager to see how she’d do in similar conditions. (Holly Rowe described the air as thick and moist, so much so it made the piece of paper she was holding at field level damp). Alas, there were no ill effects this time, as CC was sharp.

After allowing a four-pitch, one-out walk to Razorback stud Bri Ellis in the bottom of the first, she went to work, grabbing one out for herself and another to Daly to strand a runner, and in the second, she threw just five pitches. It wasn’t until the bottom of the third that CC allowed multiple baserunners, as back-to-back singles by former sprinter Reagan Johnson and Nia Carter put two on for Bri Ellis, who struck out after CC worked back from a 3-0 count.

In the bottom of the fourth was CC’s lone blemish thus far, as she allowed Hannah Gammill to see way too many pitches before a pitch with unreal spin went up and outside and she took it over the fence to tie the game 1-1.

Through four innings, CC had allowed just three hits and one run to go with a walk and a strikeout in 51 pitches.

Suspended disbelief

Allow me to set the stage for you. It’s the fifth inning and the game is tied 1-1 after a solo homer in the previous inning knots it up. Kayley Lenger steps up to the plate and lets lose an absolutely devastating bunt. The catcher rushes out and stares at it, willing it to go foul. Friends, it did not go foul, and Lenger easily took first.

Watch below. What a mistake by the catcher Kennedy Miller. If she’d just picked it up there, what transpired afterwards would not have happened.

With Lenger on first after her baby bunt, Laird came up to the plate and, as described earlier, was thisclose to her first moonshot in two years. Homer or not, Lenger took off in a mad dash and went from first to home in the blink of an eye to regain the Tigers’ lead, 2-1. Alex Honnold followed with her first hit of the contest on a single to short which put runners on the corners with no outs and prompted Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel to make a pitching change, removing Leinstock in favor of reliever Robyn Herron.

With a new pitcher in the circle and Maddie Gallagher, who had doubled in her previous at-bat at the plate, lightning struck. Literally. The field was cleared, and it wasn’t too much later — a remarkably short amount of time, I feel like— that it was announced that play would be suspended until Friday morning at 9am.

And that is where SEC Network left us, suspended in disbelief, with all the momentum trending towards “the little guy,” the mighty Tigers who suddenly have an awfully ferocious roar.

We’ll return to action this morning at 9am on SEC Network, in the fifth inning with zero outs and runners at first and third for Maddie Gallagher.

The Tigers have seven hits, two doubles, and a walk going into the last two innings. They’ve struck out five times (Leinstock had a wicked changeup) and have stranded four.

Should the Tigers advance, they’ve got a second date with the Bayou Bengals penciled in for some time after 3pm. LSU is coming off a 14-inning Sydney Berzon masterpiece and a takedown of Tennessee.

M-I-Z.

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Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+

• Recruiting Reset: Eddie Kelly is a valuable, versatile addition by Nate Edwards

When He’ll Play: The ability to bring consistent quality at any line position is one that, as you can imagine, is extremely valuable. And that type of guy can play whenever he is needed, which I’m assuming the Drinkwitz coaching staff is a big fan of. I don’t think he’ll be a starter, per se, but I have no doubt that he can find his way onto the field.

I don’t know about you, but I would LOVE another Darius Robinson on this team.

• One Step Closer by me & Brandon Haynes

Laurin Krings just has IT these days. She was almost perfect on Wednesday afternoon, aside from a solo shot in the top of the 7th that ended her day, Because, you see, a truly fantastic Laurin Krings performance doesn’t necessarily include the mowing down of a lineup via strikeout. Specs only struck out one batter on Wednesday. “WHO CARES?!”, she (probably) said. “I’ll show you and get batters out any other number of ways.”

Read all about Mizzou’s performance against Ole Miss, and catch up on the Arkansas match up.

• The Recruiting Vibes are Immaculate by Nathan Hurst

Whether by choice or by happenstance, Eli Drinkwitz making his first commitment of the 2025 class be a quarterback rather than his traditional tight end may be one of the biggest reasons for the recent positive upswing in recruiting momentum. Further, Matt Zollers isn’t just any quarterback, he’s one of the top-rated at his position in the entire class.

Everybody’s taking Jalen Brunson’s infamous quote about vibes these days. Here, Nathan examines why the vibes around Mizzou football and Eli Drinkwitz are so high.

• Survive and Advance for Mizzou Softball by Sammy Stava

“Getting hot at the right time” is another common phrase, and Mizzou has absolutely done that as well. The Tigers have won four in a row and six out of their last seven games at the most important time of the year.

Is that enough to get them a No. 8 national seed? We won’t know officially until Sunday. What we do know is that Mizzou controls their own destiny.

• Join us over at Rock M+, where there are ongoing discussions about a certain hoops portal target which may or may not pertain to that eyes emoji from Sam and suggestions of titles for a new Olympic Sports pod, among other things.

What I’m Reading/Watching:

• Mizzou’s Sean East II poised for chance at pro career with G League combine invite

Give me all the hype around Sean East II. Whether it’s videos like the one above or the newest piece by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Eli Hoff.

• Future cross-country Tiger Andrew Hauser turns down top-tier programs for MU

Andrew Hauser is one of the best long-distance runners in Missouri. He had many powerhouse programs knocking on his door, but decided to stay home and commit to MU.

Read more of Hauser’s story from The Maneater’s Michael Stamps.

• Way too early power rankings for the 2025 season

8. Missouri (Final 2024 Ranking: 11)— Missouri seems to have taken Kentucky’s place as the team that always draws the short end of the regionals bracket, but the Tigers’ stock is on a steep rise following incoming freshman Olivia Kelly’s show-stopping performance at level 10 regionals, Finnish elite Kaia Tanskanen’s strong showing at the European championships, and Oklahoma’s Amy Weir announcing her transfer to Columbia. Factor in the rest of this impressive freshman class, plus the return of sophomore all-arounder Addison Lawrence, and the Tigers are primed to claw their way up the national rankings and play spoiler in a deep SEC conference.

As College Gym News tells me, 2024 NCAA gymnastics is so last season; it’s time to look ahead at what’s in store for 2025, including which teams are the very early favorites for the postseason.

Just for Fun

• Eye emojis

• Sean East II: NBA stock up

• Congrats, Coach Davis!

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