COLUMBIA 一 Missouri softball’s road to its first NCAA Super Regional in 13 years just got a little harder after falling to Omaha 3-1 in nine innings on Friday at Mizzou Softball Stadium in the Columbia regional of the NCAA Softball Tournament.
Omaha's Ava Rongisch hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give the Mavericks the late 3-1 lead and eventual win in front of the 3,347 people in attendance.
"Honestly, anything that was close on an inside pitch especially 一 that's one of my favorite pitches 一 I just saw it and knew (Sydney) Ross was on first base," Rongisch said gleefully. "So, if there was a ball that dropped down, I knew she would be able to get home too.
"It felt good off of the bat. I think yesterday when we were practicing here it felt like they were just getting stuck in the air. So, just to see it go over was really special."
The Mavericks had five hits on the day and the Tigers had four.
Ultimately, Mizzou head coach Larissa Anderson believes the struggling offense was one of the main reasons the team lost.
"It's tough to win when you have four hits," Missouri head coach Larissa Anderson said. "I thought we had a decent pitching performance. I mean, there were two pitches that got away from one from CC (Cierra Harrison) and another one from (Marissa) McCann. But it's really tough to pitch in that situation where you're not producing a lot of runs from your offense.
Anderson believes the struggles at the plate came from players deviating from the plan and guessing at the plate. Freshman first baseman Abby Hay, who went 1-for-3 and had a walk and a run scored, agreed with the statement.
"The at-bats I was successful at I wasn't guessing," Hay said. The ones where I wasn't successful I was guessing. I just wasn't working the plan and it didn't work out my way."
Another reason Mizzou struggled was when it did get people on base it couldn't get them to score. The Tigers left eight stranded on base.
"I think we would get people on base but a lot of times it was with two outs," Anderson said. "I know we did have an opportunity she (Omaha pitcher Kamryn Meyer) had two huge strikeouts with runners in scoring position. And I think that kind of took a little wind out of our sail at the time.
"When you're struggling and you're not hitting the ball hard, then you feel that pressure throughout the game and you start to rush a little bit and I felt like we started to panic because she was in control. And we have to just believe that 一 I mean it was 1-0 一 that we have every opportunity to be able to manufacture a run."
Anderson decided to go with Harrison, Missouri's No. 2 pitcher, to start the game instead of the team's ace Laurin Krings because she liked the matchup with Harrison more in the circle based on the scouting report. The sophomore didn't disappoint either. She pitched four innings with six strikeouts and allowed three hits and a run.
But the run came in the first inning via a solo homer to left centerfield by Omaha freshman catcher Sydney Thomason. However, Harrison bounced back, striking out four of the next five batters, and didn't allow any more runs during her outing.
"She was a little tight, feeling the first time in the postseason and this atmosphere, and was squeezing the ball a little bit and that ball was a little flat, which is why it was hit out but I thought she responded extremely well," Anderson said.
In the third and fourth innings, the Tigers experienced a bit of deja vu. In both innings, the Tigers got two runners on base with no outs to start the inning but they didn’t score in either.
In the third inning, after they had two runners on base, Alex Honnold was at the plate but the Tigers tried to do a double steal with Jenna Laird at first base trying to steal second and Kenley Langer trying to steal third. The latter was ruled out.
Anderson saw there was enough spacing to steal and said the slow offensive start got her wanting to get some momentum rolling for the Tigers without having Honnold (entering the game with a .348 batting average) waste an at-bat on a bunt.
"It was maybe trying to do a little bit too much," Anderson said. "But the spacing was there for us to be able to steal. They just made a great play,"
Honnold ended up doubling to centerfield during the at-bat. However, Omaha centerfielder Marra Cramer launched the ball to the plate to record the second out of the inning on Laird before second baseman Maddie Gallagher grounded out to retire the side.
"I thought she (Laird) could make it and they made an unbelievable play," Anderson said. "The outfielder has to pick it up and throw it. She has to be on time (and) the catcher has to catch it and make a tag. So, a lot of things have to happen. They just happened perfectly. I would probably send Jenna 10 out of 10 times in that situation because of the type of baserunner that she is."
In the fourth inning, a fielder’s choice resulted in Mizzou’s Julia Crenshaw getting called out trying to go to second base. Then, Kara Daly, the team leader in home runs, and pinch hitter Katie Chester struck out in consecutive at-bats to retire the side.
Freshman right-handed pitcher, Marissa McCann, entered the game in relief to start the fifth inning and was doing well through the eighth inning. But disaster struck in the ninth inning when she gave up the two-run homer to Rongisch.
Overall, she pitched 4.2 innings and recorded three strikeouts while allowing two hits and two runs.
When asked if she saw signs of fatigue from McCann, Anderson said it wasn't until McCann faced Rongisch that she looked tired.
"Only on that last batter," Anderson said somewhat surprised. "I thought she looked extremely fresh and really strong and it was just that last batter. It was two pitches before that I had said she started to get tired."
Before Missouri and Omaha faced off, Washington defeated Indiana 8-7 after holding off a fifth-inning Indiana rally, which saw the Huskies lose a 4-1 lead and go down 6-4 through five innings. Washington scored three in the sixth inning to tie it at 7-7 before Giselle Alvarez hit a walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Washington the win.
On Saturday, the Huskies will face Omaha in the winner’s side of the bracket at 2 p.m. CT while the Tigers will face the Hoosiers at 4:30 p.m. CT in the elimination bracket in a win-or-go-home situation.
The winner of that game will face the loser of Washington-Omaha in another win-or-go-home game at 7 p.m. CT later that day.
"Every individual athlete has to look at themselves and say, 'I need to get myself ready to play tomorrow. I got nothing to lose,'" Anderson said. "Backs up against the wall. Like this is the time and if we want our seniors to play on Sunday, we've got to fight like crazy tomorrow and win two games."
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