As some of you may know, I'm going to cover Missouri softball through the rest of the season. The Tigers just dropped another series to a very good SEC team — No. 5 Georgia. The Bulldogs won Friday and today thanks to big six innings, and the Tigers couldn't keep up. But Missouri won last night, so the positive is it's not a sweep. Here are some takeaways from today's game:
1. Don't leave runners on. Missouri left nine on base today, including the bases loaded in the top of the fifth. There needs to be a sense of urgency to bring those runners home, and there just wasn't that today and this weekend.
2. Tired pitchers = tired defense. Three pitchers took the circle today for Missouri: Madi Norman (4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 E), Lauren Rice (1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 E) and Danielle Baumgartner (.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 E). Norman looked tired in the end of her outing, and Rice looked tired the entire inning she pitched. Opponents like Georgia are going to take advantage of that, and the Bulldogs did today.
3. Offense was just not enough. The Tigers had some good hits and looked good offensively until Georgia scored five in the sixth inning and Missouri just couldn't do anything more in the top of the seventh. But the score was tied 2-2 until that sixth inning thanks to an RBI from Regan Nash in the second inning and a huge pinch hit from Trenity Edwards to left field in the fourth. There were some at-bats that looked good, including a double from Brooke Wilmes. The offensive potential is there, but the Tigers need to perform better to compete with SEC teams.
Up next is a Wednesday afternoon matchup against Nebraska-Omaha in Columbia. I'll be there and will have a game thread and a story afterwards.
1. Don't leave runners on. Missouri left nine on base today, including the bases loaded in the top of the fifth. There needs to be a sense of urgency to bring those runners home, and there just wasn't that today and this weekend.
2. Tired pitchers = tired defense. Three pitchers took the circle today for Missouri: Madi Norman (4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 0 E), Lauren Rice (1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 E) and Danielle Baumgartner (.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 E). Norman looked tired in the end of her outing, and Rice looked tired the entire inning she pitched. Opponents like Georgia are going to take advantage of that, and the Bulldogs did today.
3. Offense was just not enough. The Tigers had some good hits and looked good offensively until Georgia scored five in the sixth inning and Missouri just couldn't do anything more in the top of the seventh. But the score was tied 2-2 until that sixth inning thanks to an RBI from Regan Nash in the second inning and a huge pinch hit from Trenity Edwards to left field in the fourth. There were some at-bats that looked good, including a double from Brooke Wilmes. The offensive potential is there, but the Tigers need to perform better to compete with SEC teams.
Up next is a Wednesday afternoon matchup against Nebraska-Omaha in Columbia. I'll be there and will have a game thread and a story afterwards.
