Opponents shut out the Missouri softball team just twice in 48 regular season and Southeastern Conference tournament games. In the NCAA tournament, Missouri failed to score runs in two of its six games.

The sudden power outage led to a second straight year without a trip to Oklahoma City for the Tigers after making the Women’s College World Series the previous three years.

Washington swept Missouri at home, winning game one 2-1 in eight innings and 1-0 a day later, May 24, to end MU’s season.

The lack of hitting proved especially frustrating for Missouri due to the fact that it hit so well in the SEC tournament. The Tigers averaged five runs over three games in Knoxville, Tenn.

“I can’t explain it, especially the offensive part of it,” coach Ehren Earleywine said. “We’ve swung the bat pretty well all season. We hit well in the SEC tournament. We hit over .300 as a team this season. We probably hit close to .300, maybe even better in the SEC over 24 games. I don’t know the explanation…. If I did, I would’ve done something to fix it.”

Missouri’s hitting greatly improved from the previous season. In 2012, the Tigers batted just .264 for the season. This year, the team hit .304, with every returning player with at least 20 at-bats raising their averages.

And despite playing ten fewer games, Missouri still notched 10 more home runs than the previous season, with senior Nicole Hudson and sophomore first baseman Kelsea Roth launching 16 each.

But in its Super Regional against Washington, Missouri went just 5-for-47 against Husky pitchers Bryana Walker and Kaitlin Inglesby.

“We couldn’t make an adjustment,” senior catcher Jenna Marston said after the Super Regional. “Yesterday, they had a drop-ball pitcher and we were on top of it, today they had a rise ball pitcher, and we got it underneath a lot. You can’t win ball games like that; you have to make adjustments.”

After the first Super Regional game, Earleywine said he was disappointed because he felt senior Chelsea Thomas has pitched well enough to win. In the regular season, Missouri went 24-1 when allowing two runs or fewer.

“Chelsea probably didn’t pitch her best game; she missed her spot a few times and walked that batter in the last inning,” Earleywine said after game one of the Super Regional. “We made a couple of errors, but good heavens, we’ve got to swing the bats. Washington has a couple of good pitchers, not Olympic-caliber, but we made them look like that tonight.”

Struggling with hitting in the postseason is nothing new for Missouri. In the 2012 Columbia Regional and Super Regional, the Tigers averaged just 2.7 runs in six games, and that number is slightly skewed to the high end by a 6-0 win over Illinois State in game one.

This season, Missouri averaged just 1.7 runs per game over six game, leaving Earleywine without much of an explanation.

“Our offense hit the skids,” he said. “That’s all I can say.”