Second inning explosion carries Mizzou softball over Mo State

A seven-run inning propels the Tigers to win No. 20 of the year

The Mizzou offense came up to bat in six different innings against Missouri State; but they only need one to beat them. The Tigers put up all seven runs in the second inning in a 7-2 win against Missouri State.

The game started slow, with no baserunners — let alone runs — in the first three half innings. The early highlight was a trio of strikeouts from Cierra Harrison, starting her day on the right foot.

That changed with a seven-run second inning to blow it wide open. It all started with a one-out swing of the bat from Stefania Abruscato, sending a solo home run into right field to open the scoring. This marked Fania’s third home run of the season, her first since Feb. 21 against Baylor.

“It really just started our bats going,” Abruscato said. “Hitting is contagious…the dugout was on fire after that, and it really helped the team just keep on hitting.”

The scoring barrage continued with a two-run double from Kayley Lenger after freshmen duo Madison Uptegrove and Sophie Smith reached base. Facing a 3-0 hole, Missouri State swapped pitchers to disrupt the Tiger offense.

This didn’t change a thing as Mya Dodge smashed her first home run of the season into right field, bringing home Lenger and extending the Tiger lead to five runs. Julia Crenshaw walked as the sixth straight Tiger to reach base during this one-out rally. Kara Daly broke the streak with a popout for the second out of the inning, but Taylor Ebbs was not discouraged, restarting the rally with a two-run shot to complete the seven-run inning. This marked Ebbs’ seventh home run of the season and her third at home.

These were Mizzou’s only runs of the game, held scoreless for the final four innings. There were spurts of offense, including a pair of runners in the third. Lenger finished the day a perfect 3-3 with a pair of RBI.

“She’s fighting right now to not give me a reason to take her out of the lineup,” head coach Larissa Anderson said post-game. “I think that’s a tribute to how competitive she is and how much she wants to support her team.”

The rest of the workload came down to Harrison. She pitched the first five innings, giving up no runs on one hit with eight strikeouts! It was the first game this season in which she pitched one-plus inning and allowed fewer than three hits. Plus, this marked the most strikeouts in a game for Harrison since reaching eight in a win against Illinois in late March.

“I just feeling like everything was working well,” Harrison said. “I feel like we’ve been working on just some different things and have continued to just drill, drill, drill certain pitches.”

Courtney Donahue entered in relief of Harrison to start the sixth inning. The seldom used JuCo transfer struggled, allowing a two-run homer during her first inning of work. Uptegrove allowed the first runner to reach via error, before Lauren Rowland homered to right for the Bears’ only runs of the day. Donahue recovered with a pair of outs in the field to end the inning.

Donahue came back to start the seventh with a five-run inning cushion. She saw one final batter, as Sidney McLaughlin doubled to right field, and that was enough for Anderson to make a change. Nathalie Touchet entered the game to play cleanup in the final inning. She allowed one final hit, but three flyouts helped Mizzou walk away with the midweek win.

Mizzou racked up win No. 20 on the season and their second in a row. But the SEC gauntlet continues, as the Tigers host No. 1 Texas this weekend. The first game starts on Friday at 6 p.m. from the Mizzou Softball Stadium.

“We gotta win one pitch at a time,” Anderson said. “Texas is unbelievable…It comes down to what Mizzou needs to do, and we need to be ready to hit every single pitch…it’s 21 innings that we have to compete every single pitch. If we take one pitch off, Texas is going to take advantage of it. So we have to have more energy that them. We have to protect our house.”