For the 14th consecutive year, Missouri softball is headed to the NCAA Tournament. And this time, the road to the Women's College World Series runs through Columbia. The Tigers, the No. 8 overall seed in the tournament, will host Iowa State, Northern Iowa and Illinois-Chicago in regional play beginning Friday.
"We were pumped. This was one of our main goals that we set at the the beginning of the year," catcher Hatti Moore said. "We weren’t shocked whatsoever. We were just happy we got the opportunity to do it."
"I have no words. It was super emotional," outfielder Cayla Kessinger said. "We’ve all been through so much here, so much adversity, I think we’re so deserving of this moment.
"When our name popped up on the screen, I was like, yeah, we earned that."
"I thought we were close," head coach Larissa Anderson said. "Realistically I was thinking like ten through twelve."
Missouri, 38-15 overall coming off a loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament semifinals on Friday, will open regional play against Illinois-Chicago on Friday at 3:30. The Flames went 29-21 this season and won the Horizon League. Iowa State (32-21) and Northern Iowa (31-18) will meet at 1:00 in the other opener with the two winners playing the following day. The games will be available via streaming on ESPN3.
Should Mizzou win the regional, it would most likely be in line to face No. 9 Tennessee in the Super Regionals. That series would be played in Columbia. The Tigers won two of three in Knoxville on the last weekend of the regular season.
There was no NCAA Tournament in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Missouri has played in every tournament since 2007. The Tigers eight Super Regionals and three Women's College World Series in that time, but haven't advanced to the tournament's second weekend since 2016.
Larissa Anderson has taken Mizzou to the tournament in both of her years at Mizzou. In 2019, the Tigers took No. 2 UCLA to an elimination game in the regionals, but were beaten 13-1 in the deciding contest. Missouri hasn't hosted since 2016 when the Tigers won the regional and lost to No. 2 Michigan in the Super Regional. The last time the Tigers hosted Super Regionals was in 2013. No. 11 seed Washington won the Supers on Mizzou's home field that year, beating the Tigers 2-1 and 1-0.
"Finally we’re rewarded for our success. It’s been a grind for the last three, four years for these players. They’ve had some tough draws and now to be able to be rewarded and to bring this back home," Anderson said. "You just want to say thank you for everyone recognizing how hard these kids have worked, the success we’ve had on the field."
In addition to Missouri, the SEC has Alabama, Florida, Arkansas and LSU all seeded in the top eight nationally and all in line to host Super Regionals. Tennessee and Kentucky give the conference half of the tournament's top 14 seeds.
"With the SEC, I feel like it's World Series games all the time," Kessinger said.
PowerMizzou.com will have complete coverage of next weekend's regional.
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