The Saturday afternoon tilt between the No. 9 Missouri softball team and No. 14 Oklahoma hadn’t been the easiest game of Abby Vock’s career. The Missouri senior second baseman had been hit by two pitches and committed an error earlier in the game, leading to a Sooners’ game tying run. But with one swing, Vock went from goat to glory.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, Vock turned on an inside curveball from Sooner pitcher Keilani Ricketts and lifted it over the left field fence for the first walk-off homer of her career. As she rounded third base, her teammates mobbed her at the plate.
“They were like, hitting my helmet, and I felt kind of dizzy,” Vock said. “I was like ‘please stop!’ They were super excited, and I am too. Our whole team did a great job.”
The 3-2 win was Missouri’s (34-5, 8-1) first extra-innings win of the season and the first of a two-game set this weekend with the Sooners. The matchup with Oklahoma holds extra significance for Missouri, and coach Ehren Earleywine said the win got the monkey off their back.
“I think for all of us, the excitement comes from the fact that two years ago we had a chance to clinch the conference championship here, and they took two games from us,” Earleywine said. “We just had to get off the hook. And it’s amazing how one swing can change so many things.”
Part of what it changed was the result after an uncharacteristically error-prone day for the Tigers. Missouri managed nine hits, but missed signs, and errors in the field and on the base paths cost them chances to widen their lead.
“I think the thing that’s most frustrating is that I think it’s because we get tight,” Earleywine said. “It’s not because we don’t know what to do, it’s that when the lights get bright, we tighten up. We’ve got to learn to play more loose and relaxed and stay within ourselves.”
Oklahoma created a couple of opportunities to score early on. With a runner on second for OU, Shana’e Jones singled up the middle. Outfielder Rhea Taylor threw home, and catcher Megan Christopher managed to secure the ball during a rough collision with Dani Dobbs at the plate.
“I felt like she lowered her shoulder and came right into me,” Christopher said. “But it was a pretty tough play, she came in pretty hard. Good thing my boyfriend is an offensive lineman, we’ve practiced that play.”
Redshirt sophomore Chelsea Thomas (19-3) pitched a nine-inning complete game for Missouri, giving up seven hits while striking out a career-high 17 batters. Thomas threw 161 pitches and the most riseballs in a game all season, and Earleywine said he was glad she earned a win.
“You just hope a kid with that kind of performance can be rewarded for her effort,” Earleywine said. “That is a sign of great pitchers: when they get into a jam, they find another gear. And you saw her shift several times and just shut it down.”
As for Vock’s heroics, the senior second baseman said after the game she’s already focused on playing Oklahoma again tomorrow. But Earleywine said a moment like this isn’t one that’s easy to move past quickly.
“Nobody practices harder than Abby Vock,” Earleywine said. “When you spend that amount of hours with kids like that and they’re able to have a game like that…that young lady will never forget that. And that makes you happy.”