COLUMBIA 一 Survive and advance is the name of the game and Mizzou did just that on Saturday by defeating and eliminating Indiana and Washington in consecutive games at Mizzou Softball Stadium for the right to play in the NCAA Columbia Regional on Sunday.
"We're playing on Sunday. I mean, that's the ultimate goal," Mizzou head coach Larissa Anderson said with a smile. "We went into today saying we're playing two games and we're playing two games tomorrow and I think it's the determination that these players have and the will, grit and pride."
"Then, you can take into trusting the process and everything that their coaches said going in today and what they had to do in order to be successful, and they bought in, they believed, they executed and they just trusted it."
After losing to Omaha 3-1 on Friday, Missouri played Indiana in the bracket's first win-or-go-home game, with the Tigers getting off to a quick 2-0 first-inning lead before eventually securing a 5-1 win behind a dominant pitching performance from ace pitcher Laurin Krings.
She pitched 6.1 innings and recorded two strikeouts and an error. She also allowed four hits and one run.
Her stat line doesn't do her justice. She had command of the strike zone all game with 60 of her 86 pitches being strikes. Krings forced nine flyouts and seven groundouts.
However, two of the hits she allowed happened in the seventh inning. She gave up a solo home run to right field to designated player Sarah Stone before allowing a single to right field on the next at-bat before being pulled for Taylor Pannell, who recorded the two final outs via strikeout.
The decision for Krings to pitch in Game 2 was made by the senior herself.
"It's her coming to me and saying, 'You said to me to go as long as I can for as hard as I can, and then when I have nothing left you will come and get me, I still have something left. So, put me back out there and then when I have nothing left, you can come and get me,'" Anderson recalled Kring telling her in the 45 minutes between the Tigers' wins.
Much like Game 1, Krings controlled the strike zone with 50 strikes on 77 pitches to go with seven flyouts and a pair of ground outs.
She pitched 4.2 innings and allowed six hits and a run. She also had four strikeouts and an error.
"One of the best pitching performances (in) two games that I've ever seen out of anybody, especially, against two quality teams," Anderson said proudly.
The games weren't without faults for the Tigers, though. Mizzou struggled running the bases at times just like it did against Omaha.
In the first inning versus Indiana, Maddie Gallagher was trying to advance to third base on Abby Hay's grounder to second base and would've been safe had she not overran the third base bag. She got caught trying to return to the base.
Later in the fifth inning, Kayley Lenger tried to reach home from second on an Alex Honnold single. She had reached third safely but attempted to score another run and was easily tagged out at the plate.
One inning later, Julia Crenshaw was controversially ruled out via obstruction after she tried to reach home from third base. She was called out live and upon review the call was upheld.
"When Crenshaw went on that wild pitch, the umpire said that she was out of the three-foot running lane and that's not reviewable," Anderson said. "So, the only thing I could review is possibly hoping for obstruction because I don't even know what obstruction is anymore. So, why not even review it? So I was just kind of flipping a coin hoping that maybe there was obstruction, but that was the reason for that call."
In the fifth inning against Washington, Crenshaw was caught in a jam trying to steal second base.
Anderson said the poor base running falls on her desire to try and buy the team momentum when the team can't string together a series of good at-bats.
"I'm going to say the base running is on me. And when I'm seeing that we're not manufacturing a lot of quality at-bats in a row," Anderson said reflectively. "I felt like I was overly aggressive in some situations, trying to make things happen rather than letting the game 一 and it's kind of like I tell the players 一 let the game come to you."
"I had to have a little self-talk to myself. And I talked to my coaches on not letting the game come to me. I'm trying to make something happen to try to create some more momentum because we were not putting multiple quality of bats in a row."
In Game 2, Missouri got a 4-1 win over the Huskies, who had lost to Omaha in the game before Missouri-Indiana.
You'd think the Tigers would be a little tired on just 45 minutes of rest but they weren't.
Defensively, after allowing only one extra-base hit versus Indiana (the home run), Mizzou didn't allow one in Game 2.
On Friday, Anderson said it was hard to win a game when players are guessing at the plate and the team only records four hits.
In Game 1, Mizzou had eight hits, and in Game 2, seven hits.
"I think it was again like coach (Anderson) said win every pitch and what that looks like to us is that we're ready to hit every single pitch," shortstop Jenna Laird, who went a combined 4-for-7 with a home run and an RBI, said. "So, I feel like yesterday we were kind of a little hesitant waiting for the right pitch to come."
"I also don't think there was a lot of guessing today," Hay, who also went 4-for-7 with A home run and two RBIs, said. "I think we kind of knew what to expect and really attacked all the strikes as best as we could."
Hay's solo home run to center field to start the bottom of the second inning marked the team's first of the tournament and gave Mizzou a 1-0 lead. In the next inning, Laird hit a solo shot to right field to extend the lead to 2-0. It was her first home run since April 29, 2022.
After Krings gave up a single to Kylee Holtorf, followed by an RBI single to Jillian Celis she was pulled for Marissa McCann, who redeemed herself after giving up the two-run home run in the ninth inning versus Omaha on Friday.
McCann pitched 2.1 innings and got the final seven outs on 12 pitches.
"McCann's really special," Anderson said. "I mean, just for her to have the composure that she does as a freshman is impressive."
Before Missouri got its wins, Omaha got a 3-2 win over Washington behind a complete game from pitcher Kamryn Meyer, who threw a complete game in the extra innings win over Mizzou on Friday.
On Sunday, Omaha will face Missouri in the regional final at 1 p.m. CT. If the Mavericks win they win the region. If they lose, there will be a win-or-go-home rematch immediately after with the winner going to the NCAA Super Regionals and the loser being eliminated from the tournament.
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