Missouri softball coach Larissa Anderson isn’t going into the 2025 softball season trying to repeat 2024.
“You can’t duplicate it, like, you can’t go in with your mindset saying, ‘We have to do this because we did it last year,’” Anderson said. “It’s, ‘We have to win this pitch at this moment.’ It doesn’t matter that our opening game is against Marshall, like I say all the time, we’re not preparing for Marshall, we’re preparing for the game of softball.”
Though Anderson and the Tigers aren’t focused on matching last year, the 2024 season was one of success for Missouri as the team went 48-18 overall, 13-11 in SEC play and hosted a Regional and Super Regional before coming one overtime loss away from the Women’s College World Series.
“We have our Mizzou standards,” Anderson said. “If we focus on our team, then we know we’re going to be really, really good.”
That team will have a slightly different look than it has recently with 10 newcomers on the 25-player roster.
“We have 10 new players, seven freshmen, three transfers,” Anderson said. “We’re excited about the development. We’re excited about the new players and bringing a different level of energy.”
The Tigers lost leading batters Alex Honnold and Jenna Laird, who were the only qualified batters hitting about .300 last season. Honnold batted .348 with 21 doubles and six home runs, while reaching base at a .426 clip. Laird batted .346 with 14 doubles and one home run, reaching base at a rate of .432.
“You have such great experience that we graduated with Jenna Laird and Alex Honnold and Lauren Krings,” Anderson said. “But then when you have new players coming into your program that feel that they want to leave their mark and uphold the legacies and the traditions that was set before, it’s a different energy that we have every single day in practice and it’s been really, really rewarding.”
The leading batter returning this year is sophomore first baseman/catcher Abby Hay, who batted .306 in 40 games last year, but didn’t reach the minimum requirements to qualify as a full-time batter last season. Hay was ranked No. 13 on DI Softball's first baseman power rankings.
The Tigers also return their leading power hitter in senior third baseman Kara Daly, who batted .207 with a team-high seven home runs to go with 32 RBI.
In the circle, the Tigers return junior Cierra Harrison, who compiled a 2.05 ERA and a 14-3 record in 25 games while throwing 106 innings and striking out 87 batters. They also return sophomore Marissa McCann who pitched 82.1 innings with a 1.87 ERA with three saves. They also return junior Taylor Pannell, who led the country with 15 saves in 30 games, striking out 35 batters in 34.2 innings and pitching to a 1.41 ERA.
Harrison enters the season at No. 28 on the DI Softball pitcher power rankings.
“They have the ability to be starters,” Anderson said. “They have the pitches in their repertoire to be starters and you have someone like Taylor Pannell, who led the country in saves last year, who has the ability to be a starter. So who knows? I think the biggest thing from my game management standpoint with someone like Pannell is, she’s so good coming out of the bullpen, do you put her in the starting role and knowing that you might not have someone coming out of the bullpen who was as effective as she was? I don’t know yet.”
Among the newcomers are freshmen Sophie Smith from Sping, Texas, Kadence Shepherd from Blue Springs, Madison Uptegrove from Father Tolton Catholic, Jordyn Thurman from Mexico, Missouri, Abbie Wilhelm from Lee’s Summit, Saniya Hill from Godley, Texas and Nevaeh Watkins from Rowlett, Texas.
“Having seven freshmen, I know they’re going to be in some key roles, especially up the middle,” Anderson said. “Graduating Laird and Galalgher, we’re going to have inexperience up the middle, but it’s exposing them to the speed of the game right out of the chutes, so they know how fast they have to play, how fast they have to make decisions, how hard the ball comes off the bat. … You want to figure that out in early February, you don’t want your first games against a Super Regional competition and have that be the first time that you see a ball come off the bat that hard.”
The Tigers also added junior Haidyn Sokoloski from Oklahoma State and senior Taylor Ebbs from Kentucky.
Sokoloski was mainly a pinch runner for the Cowgirls last year, while Ebbs has a career batting average of .272 as a regular player for Kentucky the past three seasons.
“We need these players to be who they are and be able to maximize their potential that they have by being the best version of themselves,” Anderson said. “The program doesn’t change, tradition never graduates and that’s really what it comes down to. We have our foundation within our program and we’re going to be fundamentally perfect, we’re going to make great plays.”
Anderson will get the first look at all these new Tigers when the team takes on Marshall in the NFCA Division I Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida. The Tigers will also take on Northwestern in a season-debut doubleheader on Feb. 7, then will play Duke and Notre Dame on Feb. 8 and Iowa on Feb. 9.
The Tigers will stay in Clearwater for the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational from Feb. 13-15, then will go to California for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City from Feb. 20-22.
The Tigers will finally return home for the home-opener on March 4 when they take on Kansas City.
Missouri will open SEC play against Kentucky on March 7, then will play multi-time reigning champion Oklahoma at home from March 21-23 and reigning runner-up Texas from April 4-6 in Columbia as both old Big 12 rivalries are played as SEC matchups for the first time.
“What’s interesting is we are one of the two teams in the entire conference that gets them both,” Anderson said. Tennessee is the other one. We do get them at home, Tennessee gets them both on the road, that’s tough. … I have so much respect for both those programs, but if you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best and no better place that for them to come into our stadium and to be able to take advantage of that opportunity. I’m excited for it.”
The Tigers are entering the season at No. 15 in the DI Softball power rankings, which includes SEC teams as the top 3, No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Oklahoma, Tennessee at No. 5, Texas A&M at No. 7, LSU at No. 9, Alabama at No. 11, Arkansas at No. 13, Georgia at No. 14, and Mississippi State at No. 25, as the SEC is a gauntlet in another sport.
“Everything matters, our No. 1 goal is to host, like we want to go to the postseason and we want to be able to play in our stadium,” Anderson said. “We want to host Regionals and Super Regionals. You have to have the strength of schedule to be able to dothat. … We know the SEC is going to kick everybody’s butt and it’s going to be extremely competitive, but that’s going to set us up to be even more competitive in conference play and have an opportunity to host.”
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