One Step Closer

For the second time in three seasons, Missouri softball will meet its border rival in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

The fifth-seeded Tigers, who advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory over No. 13 seed Ole Miss on Wednesday, will face fourth-seeded Arkansas with a trip to the SEC semifinals on the line at approximately 1 p.m. Thursday (35 minutes after the conclusion of the previous game, which is at 10 a.m. CT). Here’s hoping, as Taylor Swift sings in Vigilante S***, that these Tigers are dressing for revenge.

Missouri’s matchup against the Razorbacks will provide a rematch of the 2022 SEC Tournament championship, a game in which the then-No. 7 seed Tigers suffered a loss to then top-seeded Arkansas. That is the only the second time the two have met in the tournament’s history despite facing each other 30 times previously (Mizzou leads 17-13).

Before jumping into what to expect in that showdown, though, here’s a look at how MU got there:

Missouri’s matchup against the Rebels followed a very long and sometimes thrilling 14-inning battle between No. 8 seed LSU and ninth-seeded Alabama, which culminated in a walk-off 3-2 win for LSU. Sydney Berzon needed just 208(!) pitches in a complete-game effort for the Bayou Bengals. Someone go check on her arm, please.

While waiting to get on the field — they arrived around 11 a.m. and didn’t take the field to start until 2:28 p.m., Missouri softball coach Larissa Anderson said the Tigers were able to get in their normal game of volleyball, and really, just relax and stay out of the intense heat.

The Tigers provided a much calmer performance than the game before them, cruising to their victory in 6 ¹⁄₂ innings and just two hours and two minutes.

Let’s see how Missouri got there:

Superior Pitching

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.” Home run aside, she induced weak contact. No one was tearing the cover off that ball. Of the 22 batters faced, 10 were ground outs and seven were fly outs. Pretty, pretty good.

After allowing a leadoff walk to Jalia Lassiter in the first inning, Krings went nine batters before allowing another baserunner (a single, coincidentally also by Lassiter). In the fourth, Specs allowed a double from Angelina DeLeon, and then she went six more batters without another runner. In the seventh, facing her final batter, Krings allowed a solo home run to Aynslie Furbush. That was it. One walk, one run, three hits, and a strikeout. Four baserunners, and never more than one at a time. They got no further than second base, and only one advanced (Lassiter, on a sac bunt).

Once Krings exited, Taylor Pannell came in to notch her nation-leading 13th save. Lucky no. 13, per my colleague Brandon Haynes’ meticulous research, puts the Lee’s Summit sophomore in rare air, as she is officially in the record books as Missouri’s single season saves leader. This surpasses Kacey Marshall, who set the previous record of 12 in 1994, some 30 (!) years ago.

While Pannell didn’t record a strikeout — a bit odd for her, but she also wasn’t getting the calls in one of her normal spots — she was great as usual, only allowing a walk.

As for Ole Miss, I truly do understand what they were going for; it made sense. Brianna Lopez is an off-speed pitcher. Mizzou, at times — okay, many times — has been known to struggle with this, finding an inability to, as Coach has called it, get on time.

One statistic the announcers kept harping on regarding Ole Miss starter Brianna Lopez, however, was this— the second time through the order, opponents hit .278 against her. This little fact, despite the large percentage of change ups in her pitching repertoire (around 60%), left me with a glimmer of hope that the Tigers would have a chance if they could just get on time. They could capitalize if she faltered. And my god, they were right! Starting with Jenna Laird her second time up to bat, the Tigers let loose a single, double, walk, single and walk in rapid succession which took Lopez out of the game for Makenna Kliethermes.

Once the former Oregon transfer came in, she was able to keep the Tigers’ scoring at bay, stranding five baserunners across her 3 ¹⁄₃ innings of work. Overall, Kliethermes allowed two hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch to go with three strikeouts.

This game fully showed the discrepancy in pitching talent between these two teams, as Missouri proved it has one of the strongest staffs in the SEC; Ole Miss did not.

Balanced Offense

Missouri presented a balanced attack on Wednesday despite runs scoring only in one inning. This Tiger team, as they have continued to show everyone, doesn’t need to hit bombs to win games (their next opponent does, so watch out). It can’t hurt, of course, as evidenced by last weekend’s 10-inning South Carolina season finale that featured two long balls, but ultimately, this is not what this team is known for.

Eight of Mizzou’s 10 batters on Wednesday reached base in some way, led by Jenna Laird, who was 2-for-3 on the day with a run scored, walk and stolen base and Alex Honnold, who was 1-for-3 with a double, two RBI, hit by pitch, run scored and a strikeout. In fact, the only Tiger starter not to reach base was Kara Daly, who was 0-for-2 with a strikeout. (The other was Katie Chester, who batted just once as a pinch hitter.)

In the third inning, Kayley Lenger worked a one-out walk and in the SEC Network postgame, Anderson said this at-bat was what changed things. It was the spark they needed. Claire Cahalan (1-for-3), getting the start on Wednesday in left, hit an infield popup for the second out, but then the floodgates opened. Laird singled to center and both Lenger and Laird advanced on the throw. Honnold’s RBI double to right center scored two, and Maddie Gallagher followed with a walk. Then it was Abby Hay’s turn, who unleashed an RBI single to left center, which advanced Gallagher to third and scored Honnold. Stefania Abruscato notched her first of two walks on the day before Ole Miss went to its bullpen to bring in Kliethermes, who got Julia Crenshaw to fly out and strand the bases loaded.

In the sixth, the Tigers again loaded the bases as Honnold led off with a hit by pitch and Gallagher followed with a fielder’s choice. Back-to-back walks to Abruscato and Crenshaw loaded the bases for pinch hitter Katie Chester, but she flied out to end the threat.

In all, Missouri amassed five hits, a double, six walks, a fielder’s choice and a hit by pitch to go with six strikeouts.

Razorback Revenge

In early April, while I was busy covering Mizzou gym regionals and celebrating my birthday, Missouri took to Fayetteville. The Tigers came away with just one victory against the then-no. 19 Hogs — a 12-3 demolition in 5 innings on Saturday — but in the aftermath, Anderson saw some positives, calling the Game 1 loss (5-2) competitive. “We had an opportunity to tie it up when it came down the stretch, which is your ultimate goal there.” And in the 4-1 loss in Game 3, she liked how the lineup really grinded out their first run and had a good outing from Marissa McCann for four innings.

Before that series, Arkansas head coach Courtney Deifel was quite complimentary of the Tigers, saying, “They have a lot of tools throughout their order. they’re not necessarily one style, and they’re just a little bit more unpredictable throughout the order, which makes it a little bit more difficult to prepare for.” She also called Honnold one of the best hitters in the country, referencing specifically her ability to drive the ball and her speed. “She’s a tough hitter to defend because of the tools she has.”

Since they last met, Missouri has gone 10-4 with non-conference wins over Drake and SIUE, a win over #9 Georgia, two wins each against #9 Florida and #18 Mississippi State, and a sweep of #RV South Carolina.

Arkansas, on the other hand, has gone 8-5 since taking the series over Missouri, with a non-conference win over Central Arkansas, two wins over #25 South Carolina, #15 Alabama, #7 LSU, and one win over Ole Miss to end the season.

As a whole, the Razorbacks are an average team offensively, but they are above-average on the pitching side. They have allowed the third-fewest earned runs but sport just the seventh-best on-base percentage and third-fewest doubles in conference play.

If you want to know more about Arkansas’ lineup from just a month ago, visit this preview. The Razorbacks and Tigers are honestly very evenly matched, making the next rendition of the border showdown one that could showcase one of the SEC Tournament’s best games of the week.

Karen Steger Designs | data via sec sports

SEC Tourney History

• Mizzou is 3-2 in the quarterfinals since joining the SEC during the 2012-13 season. The Tigers advanced in their inaugural season, as well as 2021 and 2022, but failed to get out of that round in both 2014 and 2015.
• Should the Tigers make it past Arkansas, they’re 2-1 in the semifinals, with wins in 2013 and 2022, and a loss in 2021.
• There were some lost years in there, as Mizzou didn’t advance in what I’ll lightly call the “dark years”, spanning from 2016-19. And, of course, we all saw what happened last year (2023).
• Wednesday’s win was the Tigers’ fourth-straight SEC Tournament opening win since 2021.
• Then-No. 3 seed Missouri defeated sixth-seeded Arkansas 8-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 SEC Tournament, so the Tigers do have some success against the Razorbacks in this round. It was MU’s first-ever SEC Tournament game.

Get through this one and the Tigers are likely to meet another familiar foe, the Tennessee Lady Vols. in the semis. “Don’t get sad, get even.” Thanks, Taylor. Go Tigers.