Missouri shortstop Jenna Laird slides into third on Saturday, March 5, 2022 in Columbia, Mo. Laird was named the 2021 SEC Softball Freshman of the Year.
What a weekend for Missouri softball.
The Tigers returned to Columbia for their first homestand of the season and strung together a 4-0 weekend while making history every day of the Mizzou Softball Tournament.
Missouri welcomed St. Thomas to Mizzou Softball Stadium on Friday afternoon for the Tigers’ first game of the weekend. Despite the gloomy weather conditions at first pitch, Missouri dominated the Tommies from start to finish en route to a 13-0 run-rule victory in five innings.
The pitching trio of junior Jordan Weber, junior Megan Schumacher and freshman Jayci Kruse combined for the Tigers’ second no-hitter of the season and their first combined no-hitter since Feb. 23, 2019 against New Mexico State.
On the offensive side, Missouri tallied 16 hits, its highest total since March 7, 2021 against Louisiana Tech. Graduate outfielder Brooke Wilmes, freshman infielder Kara Daly and redshirt senior outfielder Casidy Chaumont each hit a home run and combined for eight RBIs.
The Tigers continued their success on day two of the Mizzou Softball Tournament, sweeping Bradley and St. Thomas in run-rule victories.
Taking inspiration from Friday’s masterful pitching performance, sophomore pitcher Laurin Krings stifled Bradley’s offense and tied a career-high with 14 strikeouts in six innings. Krings held the Braves without a hit or a run until the bottom of the third when senior outfielder Keeler van Breusegen sent a Krings’ pitch over the left-center field fence.
While van Breusegen paced the Braves’ offense, senior pitcher Grace French retired 10 consecutive Missouri batters after allowing two runs and two hits in the first inning. Tigers sophomore first baseman Riley Frizell ended French’s dominant stretch with her first home run of the season to begin the bottom of the fifth.
After graduate infielder Kimberly Wert brought Chaumont home on a fielder’s choice, Daly drilled her second home run of the tournament to right-center field to give Missouri a commanding 6-1 lead at the end of the fifth inning.
The five-run inning knocked French out of the game, and Missouri capitalized on her replacement: sophomore pitcher Camryn Schaller. Schaller allowed two batters to reach base before she recorded the first out, but junior outfielder Kendal Cook scored on a wild pitch to bring the Tigers within two runs of the run-rule at 7-1.
Chaumont drove Frizell home on a single to center, bringing Wilmes to the plate with Missouri one run away from reaching the run-rule. Wilmes cranked a high-arching ball down the right-field line for a walk-off home run to give Missouri a 10-1 victory in six innings.
After hitting the game-winning home run against Bradley, Wilmes led off game two with another home run, giving her back-to-back Missouri at-bats with home runs. However, the home run onslaught did not stop there.
Daly, sophomore infielder/outfielder Alex Honnold and redshirt senior infielder Kendyll Bailey each added a home run to give Missouri four in the first inning. Wert, graduate catcher Hatti Moore and freshman infielder Julia Crenshaw all hit home runs over the next three innings, giving the Tigers a program-record seven home runs in one game.
Wert’s home run moved her into a tie for the second-most home runs in program history with 46, while Crenshaw’s home run marked her first hit at the collegiate level and Honnold’s was her first collegiate home run.
Schumacher replaced Weber after one inning and held St. Thomas to two runs and five hits over four innings. She earned her third victory of the season, and Missouri run-ruled the Tommies 11-2 in five innings.
After a record-setting offensive performance against St. Thomas, the Tigers turned to Krings once again for Sunday’s Mizzou Softball Tournament finale against Bradley. Krings followed her 14-strikeout outing against St. Thomas with a 12-strikeout perfect game.
Krings recorded the 12th perfect game in Missouri softball history, striking out 26 of the 40 batters she faced over the weekend. She retired all 18 Braves’ batters Sunday as Missouri’s offense supported her along the way.
Bradley freshman pitcher Abbott Badgley allowed four runs in two innings of work, which proved to be enough support for Krings. Daly hit a home run in the third inning, giving her a home run in each game of the tournament and home runs in her first four home games at Mizzou Softball Stadium.
Chaumont finished with four RBIs and extended her hitting streak to nine games, while Wilmes recorded walk-off hits in both games against Bradley after her game-winning single Sunday. Missouri batters hit 14 home runs total and batted .475 over the four games while out-scoring Bradley and St. Thomas 42-3.
The Tigers capped off a weekend of career-highs and historic efforts in the perfect way. Missouri improved to 16-4 on the season and will begin Southeastern Conference play at home against Tennessee March 11-13.Edited by Riley Gearhart | rgearhart@themaneater.com