Friday, March 8 —a cold, cloudy day in Columbia, Missouri. Despite the weather, Mizzou Softball Stadium attracts nearly 2,000 fans for the home opener against Auburn University. 

Missouri holds a 5-2 lead in the seventh inning, trying to secure the first SEC win of the year. With two outs and two strikes, the crowd rises to their feet. All eyes are on the pitcher. 

In the circle, senior Laurin Krings stands alone. 

She stares down the batter, her right hand swaying down by her side. She explodes, rocking into her motion, delivering a 66 mph laser to junior catcher Julia Crenshaw. 

The pitch sticks the outside of the plate, freezing the Auburn batter. The umpire wrings up the batter for strike three, ending the game in a Missouri victory. Krings and Crenshaw meet in the middle, embracing one another in a hug. This is a tradition for the duo every time Krings pitches a complete game.

“We’re big huggers,” Crenshaw said. “I always hope she completes a game so we can give each other a hug. It’s just awesome.”

This game marks the 35th complete game of Krings’ career. While the senior has turned into Missouri’s top pitcher, this success was far from guaranteed. 

Krings grew up in Loveland, Colorado — nearly an hour away from the Denver metropolitan area. During her time at Loveland High School, Krings finished her career with a 0.98 average ERA, while striking out 949 batters. She finished as a two-time Colorado Gatorade Softball Player of the Year. At the time, Krings was only the fourth player to win the award twice. Despite all the awards, there were plenty of doubters questioning her potential in a high-level conference like the SEC.

“People didn’t think Colorado girls could go D1, or go to the big SEC,” Krings said. “You don’t have to be from California or Texas, or one of these big states to make it to a big school.”

Luckily for Krings, her high school pitching coach Kelly Foster had a connection with Missouri head coach Larissa Anderson. 

Foster played her freshman year at Hofstra University the year before Anderson joined the staff. The two met when Anderson was working a pitching camp at Hofstra. Foster transferred to the University of Louisville for her sophomore year, never officially being coached by Anderson. Foster finished out her career before moving to Colorado, where she started giving private lessons to young pitchers, one of which being Krings. 

“When I got the job at Mizzou, Kelly reached out to me through social media and said, ‘I’m working with this pitcher. She’s extremely talented. I think that she’s someone you should take a look at.’” Anderson said. 

With 2018 being Anderson’s first year at Missouri, she had yet to pick up any recruits. Anderson got a chance to see Krings pitch for her club team, Nebraska Gold, during a tournament in St. Louis.

“[Krings] threw extremely hard,” Anderson said. “Right away, [we] started developing a relationship with her and her family. [We] got them on campus, and she committed.”

Anderson mentioned Krings’ velocity from the start, but it was important for her to understand the importance of ball placement in addition to speed. 

“Her first three years just lived outside [the plate],” Anderson said. “This year, she’s really committed herself and dedicated herself to throw through the inner half to right handed hitters.”

Part of Krings’ outside dependency came from her strain of nagging injuries. In her first three years, Krings mentioned tweaks with her back, ankles, wrist and hamstring. She also highlighted they could have been overworked from pushing her physical limits. 

The key for Krings in her final season has been to train smarter and consistently instead of just pushing herself to the limit.

“She spent the entire summer here training,” Anderson said. “Getting her body in the shape that it’s in right now and getting stronger, so she is able to throw complete games throughout the entire year.”

In their four years together at Missouri, Anderson and Krings have built a strong bond. As part of Anderson’s first recruiting class and her role as a pitcher, Krings has a unique bond with her coach.

“I think that it’s just really committing to what [the coaches] are telling you to do,” Krings said. “I feel like in the past few years, I haven’t always been committed to it as much as I should have been. And this year it just hit like okay, I actually have to do this.”

Perhaps the best example of this relationship came during the Clemson game in the team’s trip to Florida. After pitching two games that weekend, Anderson was ready to pull Krings during the third inning and let the bullpen take over. But with the lead and the team on her side, Krings was determined to finish the game.

“[She told me] ‘This is my game, I want to finish it … I want to win it for my team,’” Anderson said. “Being able to put the team on your shoulders … and finish that game, really shows a lot of her leadership and what this team means to her.”

Krings has been fighting to become the ace ever since she stepped foot on campus. 

“She wanted to be the Friday night starter more than anything,” Anderson said. “Now she has the opportunity to do so and doesn’t want to let anyone down.”

Not only is it about having complete control of the game, but the mindset of helping the team as the front line of defense.

“It’s a lot of pressure to be a pitcher,” Krings said. “I think about this all the time. A pitcher can lose the game but we can’t win the game. So it’s being on my “A game” every single time when I’m out there.”

Krings finished the game against Clemson, leading Missouri to a 4-1 win. This was her second top-25 victory of the season at that point, earlier defeating No.16 Utah in the season opener. Krings was dominant on the mound, allowing four runs in the two games. While the price wasn’t paid on the scoreboard, Krings felt the weight of the performance on her body.

“When players win championships … those athletes cry, not because they won, but because they exhausted every ounce of energy they have,” Anderson said. “That’s what I saw out of Krings in the Clemson game. It was the first time I ever saw her exhaust every ounce of energy to an athletic performance.”

Krings’ biggest motivator during the game was her best friend and catcher, Julia Crenshaw.  The catcher continued to speak life into Krings, celebrating every single strike down the stretch.

Their friendship blossomed slowly, as Krings claimed Crenshaw was very quiet as a freshman.

“I was scared of her,” Crenshaw said. “Have you seen how hard she throws?”

Crenshaw bounced around several positions in her time at Missouri, starting at shortstop, then to the outfield, then to second base and finally as the full-time catcher. She had never been a catcher beforehand, having to learn the position on-the-fly.

“[I asked Coach Anderson to] say it one more time so that I know [she was] being for real … I had never caught before,” Crenshaw said about her first time catching against Tulsa. 

The two have started living together alongside fellow teammate and senior outfielder Chantice Phillips. As both teammates and roommates, the bond between the two continues to grow. 

“She’s literally my mom … she keeps me in line,” Crenshaw said, referencing her relationship with Krings.

Perhaps the best example of the team’s connectedness is the newly founded bowling team run by the three roommates. Krings said the trio attempts to make it out to the lanes every off day with matching bowling shirts.

Krings serves as a mentor to many of the young players on the team, due to a combination of both her experience and her drive. As the only senior pitcher on the roster, Krings helps the younger rotation members on what it means to play the position.

“I want them to trust themselves and know that I have full faith in them,” Krings said. “I feel like this year we’re definitely closer and they’re more comfortable coming up to me if they have a problem and they need to talk about something.”

In Krings’ final season, Anderson noticed the new role the pitcher stepped into.

“She’s put the team on her back to be successful, and knows that it’s her team and she’s leading them in the right direction,” Anderson said. “She is slowly becoming the captain of the ship.”

When she’s not at the field or at the bowling alley, Krings is at home with her dog, Quincy and her cat, Miles. Krings has been an animal lover all her life, as her grandfather had a farm filled with horses, sheep and cows. This connection helps separate her life at home from life on the field.

“They don’t care if you threw a no-hitter, got lit up,” Krings said. “It’s just refreshing to have a cute little face there, every day.”

While Krings’ life is much more than the field, most of her attention traces back to softball. When reflecting on her four years at Missouri, Krings said that her favorite memory was facing James Madison University at home during the super regional her freshman year.

“[I] took a whole 360 just to look around … you see all these kids lined up on the berm fence,” Krings said. “I look up and I see my mom in the stands … I’m like oh wow, we actually made it.”

Krings and the rest of the team look to make it back to the super regionals for the first time since that series in 2021. Off to their best start since 2013, it seems like a growing possibility every day.

“It would mean everything,” Krings said. “I have no doubt that we’re going to go far this year.”

Edited by Grace Ainger | gainger@themaneater.com

Copy edited by Bella Zielinski and Grace Knight | gknight@themaneater.com 

Edited by Genevieve Smith | gsmith@themaneater.com