Heartbreaking ninth inning ends Mizzou's softball season
Laurin Krings held one of the best offenses in the country at bay for eight innings. It just wasn’t enough. D’Auna Jennings led off the top of the ninth with a no-doubt home run to right field to give Duke a 1-0 lead on what would ultimately be the final pitch of Krings’ career at Missouri. The Blue Devils added three more runs off reliever Taylor Pannell to take a 4-0 lead to the bottom of the ninth.
Missouri—as it has all year—went down fighting. The Tigers got singles from Jenna Laird and Alex Honnold before a three-run home run by Abby Hay. With two outs, Kara Daly lined a single back up the middle.
“When you’re down four runs, all you ever ask is to get the tying run up,” Mizzou head coach Larissa Anderson said. “We had the winning run up.”
Madison Walker drilled a ball in the right center field gap, possibly as hard as any Missouri player hit one all weekend off Duke pitching. Jennings chased it down.
Duke 4, Mizzou 3. Season over.
“I want to take a hit away from everybody,” Jennings said. “I think I’m the best centerfielder out there. I don’t think there’s anybody better than me and I don’t think any ball’s gonna get past me.”
Few did. Jennings made big plays on offense and defense in the final inning to push her team to its first ever appearance in the Women’s College World Series. But the Blue Devils likely don’t get there without what followed her home run in the top of the ninth.
Anderson removed Krings after the home run. At that point she had thrown 100 pitches, given up one run on four hits and retired 23 of the last 25 Duke hitters she had faced.
“Fourth time thought the lineup,” Anderson said. “When we were going through the lineup when Jennings was up I knew this was gonna be the tough part getting through the top three. As soon as they hit the home run, it was time to make a change to change the momentum. It just didn’t work in our favor.”
With two outs, Pannell hit Francesca Frelick with a 2-1 pitch. Amiah Burgess followed with an RBI triple, Ana Gold with an RBI double and Kelly Torres with another RBI double on a pop fly behind first base that hit Abby Hay’s glove on an attempted over the shoulder catch. At the time, it simply seemed like added insult to a likely loss for a Missouri offense that had mustered all of four hits off Duke pitcher Cassidy Curd in the previous 17 innings. But when Hay homered, the three runs Duke scored after Krings left the circle loomed larger.
The offensive explosion on both sides came on the heels of as fierce a pitchers’ duel as possible. Krings and Curd threw a combined 16 innings giving up no runs, six hits and no walks.
“To shut down our offense for that long is incredible. Hats off to her,” Curd said. “I said (to the offense) we’ll stay here as long as you guys want to stay here.”
“We couldn’t be here if it weren’t for her,” Tiger shortstop Jenna Laird said of Krings. “She did everything for us. She’s Mizzou. You look at her, I’m going to always think of her as one of my best teammates.”
The Blue Devils came into the weekend 12th in the country hitting .332 as a team. They were six-for-44 off Krings in the last two days. But it was one hit too many for Mizzou to overcome.
The loss was too fresh, the emotion too raw in the immediate aftermath to properly contextualize the season. Missouri was picked 11th in the SEC in the preseason poll. The Tigers won 48 games, the most for the program since 2011. They finished fifth in the league in the regular season and advanced to the conference tournament title game. They earned a No. 7 national seed and hosted a regional and a Super Regional for the first time since 2021.
“Wow. Just a dogfight,” Duke head coach Marissa Young said. “Kudos to Mizzou. So much fight all weekend and a great competitor. Super proud of our girls for continuing to fight with their backs against the wall.”
“They’re an unbelievable team,” Anderson said of the Blue Devils, who are off to the first Women’s College World Series in program history. “I wish them the absolute best. Obviously I would much rather have it be us.”
The loss was devastating. Hay spoke through tears. Anderson began by saying “I’m a wreck and an ugly crier.” But Missouri’s coach and its players would not let coming up one run short erase what it had done over the previous four months.
“Those are my baby girls,” Anderson said of her seniors. “I've known them since they were nine years old. And to see them grow up and grow into the young women that they are has nothing to do with their stats. It's who they are as people and I'm just so proud that they took a chance on me in traveling halfway around the country to play at this university.”
“Maggie Gallagher said something in the locker room,” Laird said. “She was like, ‘I would take this result over and over again, if it meant I got to play with you guys again.’
“We would all die for one another.”
Obviously, it wasn’t that grave. All that ended on Sunday was a softball season and a handful of college careers.
“I love it here,” Laird said. "It’s very hard to reflect on because I don't want to be done.”
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