No. 15 Mizzou picked up a huge SEC road series against a top team Arkansas Razorbacks team last week. Entering this weekend tied at third in the SEC with Alabama the Tigers opened up a three game series at home against No. 3 Florida with their sights set on an SEC regular season title.
The Tigers led most of the way on Friday, but dropped the opener to the third-ranked Gators 5-2.
Cayla Kessinger put the Tigers on the board first with a two-run home run, her tenth of the year, in the bottom of the second inning.
“It’s great that she was able to have such a quality at bat that she did and even her other at bats were great,” head coach Larissa Anderson said. .
Mizzou would control most of the game behind the pitching of Jordan Weber. While she did drop to 9-4 on the year, she only allowed 2 hits on 110 pitches through 5.2 innings while striking out five Gators.
The sixth inning is where it fell apart for the Tigers. Florida would load the bases, ending Weber’s night. Emma Nichols replaced her and Emily Wilkie, the first batter she faced, tied the game with a 2 RBI single into left field. The next batter, Jaimie Hoover, put three more runs on the board for Florida with a home run into left center field giving the Gators a 5-2 lead. Florida wouldn't give it back.
Despite the loss, Anderson liked the way her team played.
“We played great, we really really did play great," Anderson said. "Those are the games you wanna win and you hope to win and you know is just a heartbreaker to lose that way.”
Nichols took the loss but Anderson thought a game like this was good for her.
“You think about how many blown saves Mariano Rivera has had, you know this is the first one for Emma Nichols," Anderson said. "So the type of competitor she is, she’s gonna learn from this moment because she’s gonna be in this exact same situation at another point.
It's the first time all season Mizzou has lost the opening game of an SEC series, but Anderson believes her team will respond.
“The atmosphere in the locker room is a little somber, it’s a little disheartening because we have gone out and we’ve won game one and Jordan pitched well enough to win game one. So it’s just taking that frustration and that disappointment and now going out tomorrow and paying more attention to detail.”
The Tigers fall to 34-12 and 12-6 in SEC play. They will have two more games against the Gators tomorrow 4 PM and Sunday at 11 AM.
Talk about this story and more in The Tigers' Lair
Make sure you're caught up on all the Tiger news and headlines
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for video and live streaming coverage
