A year removed from a first-round elimination in the NCAA tournament, Missouri is gearing up for its fifth season under head coach Larissa Anderson.
The Tigers open up their season with six straight road series, starting from February 10 in Clearwater, Florida to March 5 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Their pre-conference play will include top teams in the nation such as No. 6 Texas, No. 18 Central Florida, No. 24 Oregon and No. 3 Oklahoma State.
“It's gonna show us exactly where we are right now in terms of practice and preparation and what we need to work on,” Anderson said. “You can take as many ground balls as you want inside on turf and you can face your own pitchers, but until you face another opponent you really don't know where you're at.”
The Tigers lost eight seniors from last year’s roster, including key hitters Kim Wert and Brooke Wilmes. Apart from two of its best hitters, Missouri also saw essentially all of its infield and outfield graduate from the program.
“I mean, our freshman players are inexperienced players,” Anderson admitted. “But they were mentored greatly by that senior class. They were tremendously loyal, dedicated, and committed to this program, and really set the foundation for our younger players to learn from.”
Though MU will keep All-SEC Second Team (and preseason first-team) shortstop Jenna Laird to lead the way, only two other players, Alex Honnold and Kara Daly, are returning starters.
In 2022 Laird led Missouri in batting average (.338), hits (67), doubles (11), triples (3), runs scored (44), at-bats (198), and stolen bases (22). Sitting at the top of the order in most games, Laird will be a keystone bat in the Tigers’ lineup in the 2023 season.
“She's so unbelievably strong right now,” Anderson said. “She's worked tremendously hard in the weight room and in her conditioning, but I think the biggest difference is mentally. Working with Jeff Cottrill, our new hitting coach, in understanding what she's capable of doing in elevating her approach, in developing a little bit of different mechanics, and being able to hit the ball to both sides of the field.”
The addition of Cottrill as a hitting coach not only contributes to Laird’s approach, but the approach of the whole team. Formerly a hitting coach at Oklahoma State, Cottrill went to three World Series with the Cowgirls as well as winning a Big 12 title.
Key players who will step into larger roles in 2023 will likely be Riley Frizzell to replace Emma Raabe, who started 50 games last season, and Daly, who takes over third-base duties full-time after the departure of Wert.
“We always wanna go out and put ourselves in a position to win a championship,” Anderson said. “The ultimate goal is to go to the College World Series. I mean that's something that this group has not experienced, that I have not experienced, and it's about putting ourselves in a position to have that opportunity.”
Though Missouri’s position player core saw massive changes in the offseason, the pitching staff remains intact into 2023. Junior Laurin Krings and senior Jordan Weber look to build on their success from last season as the Tigers’ two primary starters, while senior Megan Schumacher will come out of the bullpen and start in an emergency role.
Weber and Krings combined for 310 innings pitched while holding 2.51 and 2.78 ERAs, respectively. Krings also finished fifth in the SEC last season with 185 strikeouts.
“Those three pitchers, Weber, Krings and Schumacher know what is expected of them and they wanna go out on a very, very high note,” Anderson said. “They've committed to their craft in the weight room, which is carrying over to the pitches. Krings is throwing 70 consistently, which is on the high end of where she would peak last year, and she's consistently living in that range. She's added a couple other pitches to her repertoire as has Weber, as has Schumacher. So having that advantage and adding more pitches, adding a different offspeed look is gonna make 'em that much tougher to hit.”
While the Tigers certainly lack the same veteran presence as in previous seasons, Anderson is certainly confident in her team’s ability to compete with the best early on and make a run at a College World Series appearance.
“We know that we don't have the same experience defensively that we did last year because we lost a lot of starters, but we have that experience in the circle, so it's relying more on our pitchers to keep their ERA under 2.00,” Anderson said. “We have to be able to score three or four runs to be able to win, but now the onus is gonna be on the pitching staff rather than on the offense.”
The Tigers kick off their season with a Friday doubleheader against No. 6 Texas in Clearwater, Florida at 3:00 p.m. CST and then Fordham at 5:30 p.m.
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