Thunder and lightning Saturday led to some impressive fireworks today as the 12th-ranked Missouri softball team shutout Kansas in both sessions of a doubleheader to sweep the weekend series against the Jayhawks.

The Tigers (20-3, 3-0 Big 12 Conference) won the first game 5-0 and took the second 9-0.

Redshirt junior pitcher Chelsea Thomas shut down the Kansas bats in the first game as the Tigers pulled down a 5-0 victory. The Missouri ace picked up her 10th win of the season and punched out nine batters over five shutout innings. Freshman Bailey Erwin closed out the game with two scoreless innings.

Thomas hasn’t allowed a run in the last 40.1 innings pitched.

Senior Kristin Nottelmann pitched her strongest outing of the season, striking out seven and only allowing two hits over six innings of work. The 9-0 Missouri win is her sixth of the season.

“It’s vintage Notty,” coach Ehren Earlywine said. “She’s always been a slow starter; she turns it up when she needs to turn it up. She threw fantastic today. Hopefully that’s a sign of things to come.”

After today’s games, the Missouri pitching staff hasn’t allowed a run in six straight games.

“Our pitchers have been doing a good job,” Earlywine said. “Early in the season they were getting behind in the counts a lot, and they haven’t done a magnificent job of doing that as of late, but they’ve been playing better.”

In what is becoming a trend for this Tiger squad, the offense started early in game one. Freshman Corrin Genovese drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the first inning, followed by senior Ashley Fleming driving a single up the middle.

A Kansas error on junior Nicole Hudson’s grounder to first allowed Genovese to score. Fleming came around later in the inning on a wild pitch, and junior Lindsey Muller hit a ground ball out that drove in Hudson to make the score 3-0 Missouri.

Junior Jenna Marston provided the offensive punch, knocking a single and scoring on a Muller hit to left in the third. She also drove in McKenzie Sykes from third with a ground out in the fourth inning to put Missouri ahead 5-0.

Game two began slowly for both sides. The Jayhawks managed only one hit over the first three innings, while the only Missouri runners to reach base, Hudson and Muller, drew walks on eight consecutive balls.

After two innings without much production, the Tiger offense kicked into gear in the bottom of the third. Freshman Ashtin Stephens hit a single to left-center after a long battle at the plate, but was thrown out at second after Marston knocked a bunt single down the third base line. Genovese followed with a walk and advanced to third base on a Fleming double that drove in Marston.

After another pair of walks to Hudson and Muller to load the bases and allow Genovese to come home, Princess Krebs skied a sacrifice fly that scored Fleming and pushed the Tigers to a 3-0 lead.

Freshman Kelsi Jones closed out the scoring in the third when she crushed a three-run homer to the opposite field and gave Missouri a 6-0 lead. It was Jones’ second home run of the series.

“To come in and pitch hit on Friday night and to hit a home run, that’s pretty big,” Thomas said. “She came up big again for us today, so that confidence building into the next couple of weekends is going to be huge.”

Nottelmann carried the load from there, allowing only one hit through the last three innings.

Missouri closed out the final Big 12 meeting against Kansas 9-0 with a walk-off, two-run shot from Fleming in the bottom of the sixth.

“It was good to end the weekend on a hit like that,” Fleming said. “I’ve gotten some hits, hit couple hard, but there’s also been some at bats that haven’t been as good as I hoped.”

The end of this conference rivalry brought some mixed feelings for the Missouri players.

“It doesn’t really matter how the two teams are, just the fact that it’s Missouri and Kansas, it brings a little something extra to the table,” Fleming said. “It makes it that much better and that more intense.”

Thomas said she had similar feelings toward playing the rival.

“I won’t mind it, I will say that,” Thomas said. “They are not my favorite team to play. But I’m glad to send them off with a three game series like that.”