The Missouri softball team got its first Southeastern Conference series win this weekend with two wins over No. 11-ranked Auburn. But while things are looking up, the Tigers still stand at 24-21 overall and just 6-11 in SEC play.
With its first SEC series win of the season, Missouri softball’s RPI ranking moved up to No. 22 this week. Interim head coach Gina Fogue called the wins “just a great all-around effort” in a press release.
The third game was cancelled “due to player safety concerns & low wind chill temps in the Mid-Missouri area,” according to Mizzou softball’s Twitter.
The Tigers got to the top of the fifth inning of Friday’s game before a weather delay postponed the game until Saturday morning. Instead of one afternoon game on Saturday, the team finished its first game, starting where it left off on Friday, and then played the scheduled game.
Mizzou left Friday’s game with a 3-0 deficit and let Auburn tack on another run in the sixth before coming back and scoring five runs in the sixth and seventh innings to win in a 5-4 walk-off win. After sophomore outfielder Cayla Kessinger put the team on the board with a sixth-inning solo home run, freshman Trenity Edwards tied it up with a three-run home run. Kessinger slammed her eighth home run of the year — her second of the game — for the walk-off win. In an interview posted on Twitter by Mizzou Network, Kessinger called the two wins on Saturday “a big confidence booster.”
“We continue to get big moments from so many people,” Fogue said in a press release. “How about Trenity [Edwards] stepping up in the first game with a huge pinch hit home run to tie it up? Then Cayla [Kessinger] continues to perform well in conference play and delivers that walk-off.”
The team’s second game was less dramatic — Missouri jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the first and never trailed, winning 5-1. Freshman pitcher Lauren Rice got her ninth win of the season with a complete game. She walked two but struck out four.
“Lauren [Rice] struggled a bit early, but really locked down at the end and was real impressive,” Fogue said in the press release.
The team won’t play another home game until the first weekend in May. Mizzou will trade its Columbia, Missouri, location for Columbia, South Carolina, next weekend in its SEC series against South Carolina.
The Tigers have won four of their last five games and have 10 games remaining before the SEC Tournament, which will be hosted at Mizzou Softball Stadium this year.
_Edited by Joe Noser | jnoser@themaneater.com_