Senior Regan Nash hit the ball about 20 feet and made it all the way around the bases.
After a leadoff single by sophomore center fielder Brooke Wilmes, Nash stepped into the box and dropped down a bunt. What looked like an infield single turned into something much more. A wild throw to first rolled all the way into the right field corner, and then went past the right fielder. By the time the ball was relayed back into the infield, both Wilmes and Nash had scored. The Tigers led 2-0 thanks to two errors by the opposition and didn’t look back from there. Missouri (29-21, 10-11 SEC) defeated University of Missouri-Kansas City (25-24, 5-10 Western Athletic Conference) 8-0 in six innings.
UMKC was overmatched from the start. After running into some trouble in the first inning, redshirt senior Madi Norman was dominant in one of her final home starts as a Tiger. She allowed just two hits and a walk over five shutout innings while striking out eight Kangaroos.
The Missouri offense strung some hits together, but relied mostly on UMKC defensive miscues throughout the contest in order to stretch their lead. The visitors made five errors in total, including two on the aforementioned sacrifice bunt gone horribly wrong.
Already staked to a three run lead, the Tigers got a run-scoring double from shortstop Jazmyn Rollin in the fourth to pad the lead. The very next batter, sophomore Hatti Moore, sent a three-run shot over the right field fence, ballooning the home team’s advantage to seven and putting the game out of reach.
Sophomore Cassie Gasper, usually used as a starter, pitched a scoreless top of the sixth. Then, doubles by Wilmes and Nash pushed the eighth run across the plate to end the game in walkoff fashion.
The South Carolina Gamecocks travel to Columbia, Missouri this weekend for a three-game set to close out the regular season. Game one is slated for Friday at 7 p.m. CDT.
_Edited by Emily Leiker | eleiker@themaneater.com_
