Larissa’s Lessons: Takeaways from opening weekend

Your weekly Rock M softball snippets from a 4-1 start

Welcome to Larissa’s Lessons, a weekly takeaways series in which Karen and Dylan will break down the biggest takeaways from the weekend’s games. We love an alliteration and puns around here, so be prepared for some word play.

Because the Tigers are playing a ridiculous number of games in a weekend and most of aren’t televised, this will be a look at more of a big picture of a bunch of games as opposed to a recap of each game. Once the home opener comes around in March, this will likely go in a different direction, but we’ll see!

It was a pure delight to hear the metallic ping of a ball hitting a bat or the sound of a fastball smacking into a catcher’s glove again. Softball is BACK, friends. Enjoy!

**DISCLAIMER: THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE TUESDAY’S UCF GAME**

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The Tigers Went Down to Florida, Looking for Some Souls to Steal

Well, one team’s soul in particular, in the form of the no. 8 Duke Blue Devils. I honestly am shocked by the result of this game, and thought it was over in the fifth when the Blue Devils took a 3-1 lead after a two-run single, but the no. 15 Tigers rebounded, and in the sixth, with a new pitcher in the circle, the offense came alive. Julia Crenshaw reached on an error and Madison Walker followed with a single to center to put two on for Kara Daly, who singled to left to tie it at 3-3. And then the floodgates opened. Many — soooo many! — Tigers got involved to put together a NINE run sixth inning, which included a Stefania Abruscato double, a s*4%-ton of singles, and a 2-run homer by Madison Walker. It was glorious.

Mizzou knocked em off their pedestal so much that they also lost their follow up game to no. 20 Northwestern… who Mizzou beat on had shut out Friday, 3-0. Revenge mission accomplished.

Taylor agreed.

CC Firing

CC Harrison, who former Rock M writer Brandon Haynes wrote about in a feature last March, has reached a whole new level. Cierra, as we know, is on the smaller side, and because of the type of pitches she throws (primarily rise balls), she has to put her entire body into her pitches in order to generate the power she needs for her rise. LA has reminded us over the years that this is very taxing on her body, so she doesn’t oftentimes throw a bunch of complete games and she starts to look a bit fatigued going into the fifth and sixth innings. However, CC was just as strong late in the game against Northwestern as she was at the beginning. Her pitches regularly hit in the 63-64 mph range throughout. It was impressive. And for someone who hasn’t had a penchant for strikeouts, she could’ve fooled me, as she had six against no. 20 Northwestern to go with just three hits in a complete game shutout. She then turned around to face no. 8 Duke on Saturday, and while she gave up 9 hits and 3 earned runs in five innings, she got the W and was largely able to limit any damage that could have been caused by the Blue Devils’ high-octane offense.

Defense Largely Disappoints

You can tell a team is led by Larissa Anderson by the way they approach defense. Always and forever, she will praise the field as the one area where Mizzou is 100% in control.

“So it all goes back to what our philosophy is based on being fundamentally perfect, because if we don’t have good fundamentals, you can’t play fast,” Anderson said before the tournament.

This sort of defense presence was felt with one error in the first three games, a big part of those ranked wins against Duke and Northwestern. Mizzou benefited from two Wildcat errors in that latter game.

Those fundamentals dissipated to end the weekend, however, as the Tigers committed four errors in their games against Notre Dame and Iowa. Those errors helped score a pair of Iowa runs, nearly costing Anderson’s squad their final game on Sunday. And while Mizzou still escaped with the win, that sort of sloppiness cannot fly against top-notch SEC teams, and puts entirely too much pressure on the pitching staff, who is smaller than in recent years thanks to the late transfer of Lilly Whitten (Ole Miss) and only adding one reinforcement in the offseason in a JUCO pitcher.

Some growing pains are natural as the middle infield was manned (womanned?) by the Jenna Laird— Maddie Gallagher tandem, who had been playing softball together since basically birth, ha. So now they’ve got Kara Daly at short and Madison Walker at third (her natural position), and then a battery of freshmen in Sophie Smith & Madison Uptegrove interchanging at second. It has not been without struggles thus far. They’ll get there… we hope!

So… more of this, please.

Step Right Up, Stefania!

One of the best things about softball is about how any player can step into the batter’s box and turn a game on its head. Time after time this weekend Stefania Abruscato stepped into the box and made her impact felt. She led the team with 7 hits and 12 total bases, adding a home run and 4 RBI. All of this helped land her as one of the 17 members of the All-Tournament team.

Said Anderson of her fellow New Yorker last season, “She’s got unbelievable bat speed, so she’s not going to be overpowered because of genetically what she’s able to do. Sometimes she’s a little bit too quick and she’s a little bit too fast out of the zone. So we’re just learning how to let that ball travel.”

Perhaps her biggest game came against Duke. After a leadoff home run to tie things at one, she followed up with a HUGE double to take the lead as a part of a 9-run sixth inning.

But it wasn’t just Stefania lighting it up at the plate this weekend. Julia Crenshaw started her senior season off with a bang after 5 hits, 7 runs, 1 homer, 4 RBI and a partridge in a pear tree. This included a 2-hit, 2-RBI performance in the onslaught against Duke. The one home run came to help mercy rule Marshall in the opener.

We’d also be remiss to not mention Claire Cahalan (AKA Tiny Claire), who had triples on consecutive days. My dad, who was in attendance, mentioned that she didn’t even need to hit it that far to get around the bases. “That girl is FAST,” he said.

While many thought the Mizzou offense would struggle with the departures, some of those fears have been quelled after the 28 runs this past weekend. Obviously, the Duke win was the most encouraging; the Tigers didn’t score 10 runs against a top-10 team all last year but have did it in week one!

Ten separate Mizzou players scored a run, through a healthy combination of homers, hits, pinch running and any other way you can think of. While the top dogs are going to eat, talent permeates throughout the lineup, and that will play dividends come SEC play.

Offensive Leaders thru 5 games

• Stefania Abruscato: .438 BA | 1.221 OPS | 16 AB | 4 R | 7 H | 2 2B | HR | 4 BRI | .750 SLG%
• Claire Cahalan: .364 BA | 1.091 OPS | 11 AB | 4 R | 4 H | 2 3B | RBI | .727 SLG%
• Julia Crenshaw: .357 BA | 1.071 OPS | 14 AB | 7 R | 5 H | HR | 4 RBI | .571 SLG% | 4 BB
• Madison Walker: .294 BA | .980 OPS | 17 AB | 4 R | 5 H | 2 HR | 3 RBI | .385 SLG%

Help! We’re Stranded!

As Dylan mentioned above, offense was not the problem, and in many cases, they got runs! But, a bit of a concerning occurrence started early and extended through the Tigers’ five games. So many Tigers were left on base! Against Marshall, there were 6 (Dodge/Lenger 2). Against #20 Northwestern: 8 (Dodge 3, Cahalan/Hay 2). Against Iowa, there were 9 (Crenshaw 4, Dodge 3). The only games it wasn’t really a problem, and where Mizzou pitching did the stranding and weren’t the ones left out in the field? Against Duke, they only stranded 4, while Duke stranded 12(!). And against Notre Dame, they just overall couldn’t get on base, so there weren’t many to strand. The Irish stranded 8 that game, so the score could have been far worse.

This will be something to monitor going forward, as all of Mizzou’s losses in SEC play last season were the result of this very problem. “When we’re tentative and we play defensive, these are the types of results all season long,” Anderson said as the Tigers stood on the precipice of elimination against Omaha in Regionals on May 18. “All our losses look the same. And we have to be able to recognize how we feel in those environments in that situation. And be able to know when we’re successful how we also feel.”

What’s to Come

After facing UCF on Tuesday night (this was written before the game), they’ll head back to Clearwater for the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational. Here’s who they’re facing and how their seasons have started: (also read my preview here). Rankings are Softball America/NFCA Coaches rankings)

• #7/8 Florida State (Feb. 13 at 9am on ESPN 2): 4-1 on the weekend at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge in Mexico with wins over Northern Colorado (7-1), Louisiana Tech (6-3 & 9-1 in 5 innings), and splitting a two-game set with #4 Oklahoma State (6-9 & 8-0 in 5 innings). Three players were named to the All-Tournament team— Kennedy Harp (MVP), Katie Dack & Jazzy Francik.
• UR/RV Clemson (Feb. 13 at noon on ESPN 2): 3-2 on the weekend at the Paradise Classic in Boca Raton. They lost to Ole Miss (2-3) and FAU (2-6) while beating kU 4-3, Georgia State (10-1 in 6) and Missouri State (13-0).
• Ohio State (Feb. 14 at 5:30pm on ESPN+): 4-0 on the weekend at the Elon Softball Classic in South Carolina with wins over NC Central (13-0 in 5), UNC-G (10-6), Elon (4-3) and UConn (3-1).
• UR/#27 Liberty (Feb. 15 at 9:30am on SECN): 5-0 on the weekend at The Spring Games in Leesburg, FL (Mizzou has previously played in this tournament) with wins over Radford (3-2), Louisville (9-4), Cleveland State (7-0) and two over Rutgers (5-2 & 8-4). They too will play UCF, but on Wednesday.
• San Diego State (Feb. 15 at 12:30pm on ESPN+): 3-2 on the season and didn’t start with any tournaments, instead playing in their home state of Cali with two at home, two in Fullerton, and one in Riverside. They registered wins over CSun (8-1), Southern (9-0 in 6) and Army (9-1 in 5) and losses to CSU-F (3-7) and #2 OU (6-11 in 9in).