Mizzou softball begins postseason with SEC Tournament win, goal of hosting super regional (2024)

It took two outs for Missouri softball to find its usual groove at the plate, strangely enough.

Three third-inning hits — all of which came with two outs — produced enough offense for the Tigers, who downed Mississippi 3-1 for a win in the first round of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Wednesday’s win set up a rematch between fifth-seeded Mizzou (40-14, 14-11 SEC) and fourth-seeded Arkansas (36-15, 14-10 SEC) on Thursday.

The victory also kept alive MU’s chances of hosting a super regional in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, should the Tigers make it to that stage of the postseason. A first-round regional already appears to be a likely visitor to Columbia.

Missouri sat at No. 9 in the NCAA’s Rating Percentage Index, or RPI, ahead of Wednesday’s game. Sixteen teams host regionals, with the top eight that emerge from those rounds then in a position to host a super regional. Moving up in RPI would improve the Tigers’ chances of hosting two weekends of playoff competition, though they may need a top team to make a surprising early exit for that to happen.

It’s notable that Mizzou is in position to push for a host spot at all. MU was picked to finish near the bottom of the SEC in preseason polls but instead wound up just one game behind the Razorbacks for one of the four double byes in the SEC tournament bracket.

In a way, entering the postseason with so much on the table is a partial mission accomplished.

“Going into our season, we had different layers of goals,” coach Larissa Anderson told reporters before the first tournament game. “Our ultimate goal is to host regionals and host super regionals back in our stadium. But it’s everything that leads up to give you the opportunity to be able to do so. So it’s kind of different layers. One of the layers is to make a deep run into this postseason. I think we did extremely well in our seeding. It’s crazy when I look at how close the seeding is and how we were a game or two away from being in the top four.”

Missouri faced a team it hadn’t seen during the regular season in the Rebels, who didn’t pose much of an upset threat.

Starting pitcher Laurin Krings walked the first batter she faced but held together a shutout bid for six innings. A leadoff home run in the seventh inning ended both Krings’ outing and the shutout, though she finished three hits, one walk and one run allowed.

Mizzou’s ace has racked up 145.1 innings this season, fanning 114 batters while allowing a batting average of .230 and an ERA of 2.60. Yet in consultation with Anderson, Krings has been shifting her use of breaking pitches ahead of the postseason.

“What do you need to do to win?” Anderson asked her star pitcher near the end of the regular season.

Krings’ verdict was that she wanted to mix up her pitches more, injecting some unpredictability into her appearances in the circle.

“OK, well, let’s make another pitch your second-best pitch so your scouting report changes,” Anderson responded. “That’s the key. If the scouting report against Laurin Krings changes, then teams don’t know what to prepare for. That’s really our whole goal going forward, where it’s almost like it’s another, different Laurin Krings than who they saw earlier on in the year.”

While Krings was effective at getting outs against Ole Miss, she didn’t secure her usual long list of strikeouts, getting just one punch out — the only time this season that she has pitched five or more innings with just one strikeout.

The Tigers’ supporting bats managed five hits but benefited from six walks and one hit batter. A walk set up the third-inning outburst that supplied MU with its three runs.

With runners on first and second, center fielder Alex Honnold smacked a double off the outfield wall, scoring both. The hit was her 22nd double of the season and kept her in the team lead with 37 RBIs.

Just a couple of plate appearances later, freshman Abby Hay jammed a single through the infield, scoring Honnold.

After the Rebels’ seventh-inning home run, Mizzou turned to closer Taylor Pannell to finish the outing. She allowed one hit but got the three outs needed for her 13th save of the season.

Thursday’s game against the Razorbacks will rehash a series that Arkansas won a month ago in Fayetteville, taking two out of three games from the Tigers. Mizzou’s lone win in that regular season series was a run-rule victory that ended 12-3 after five innings.

MU has a better RPI than Arkansas, though the Hogs would still count as a Top 25 win in that metric — thereby improving Missouri’s chances of hosting a super regional if it can beat the Razorbacks.

That’s the dual nature of a quarterfinal game for Mizzou, which has its eyes on a couple of prizes.

“We’re going out to try to win a title,” Anderson said. “That’s what we’re trying to do. And at the same time, we’re building our resume.”