Missouri Softball Dominates North Texas in Final Day of Tracy Beard College Classic
One aspect that defined Mizzou's last two games was exploding offensively in singular innings. Against South Dakota State on Saturday, six of the Tigers' seven runs came in the third inning. In their next game against North Texas, eight of their 10 runs came in the first and seventh innings.
Sunday's rematch against UNT wasn't much different. The Tigers scored 11 runs across two innings to pick up an 11-2 run-rule victory. Laurin Krings took home the win, bringing her record to 5-0. The Tigers now sit at 10-0 on the season.
It took a couple of innings, but Mizzou's bats didn't take too long to roar. Alex Honnold and Julia Crenshaw broke the ice with back-to-back RBI doubles that scored a combined three runs. Two batters later, Maddie Gallagher singled to bring home Crenshaw.
The next half-inning saw Mizzou blow the game wide open. The Tigers scored seven runs off of Mackenzie Childers. Six of those runs came with two outs in the inning. With the bases loaded and one out, Honnold and Crenshaw both popped out. However, a rattled Childers proceeded to throw two five-pitch walks to make it 7-0 Mizzou.
Katie Chester then put the icing on the cake with an opposite field grand slam, the first of her collegiate career.
UNT put a small dent into the huge lead in the bottom of the fifth, when Saleen Donohoe hit a two-run home run off of relief pitcher Marissa McCann. However, that's all the damage that the Mean Green would inflict, and Mizzou capped of their trip to Texas with an 11-2 run-rule victory.
Sunday was, in a way, a contrast from Mizzou's previous games in Denton. A large portion of their offensive output came off of quick walks or fielding errors by the opposition. This time around, nine of Mizzou's 11 runs came off of hits.
Best of all for the Tigers, they were incredibly balanced. Every starter except one recorded at least one hit. The one who didn't, Stefania Abruscato, drew a hit-by-pitch as well as a walk and scored a run.
The Tigers will be making a trip to the West Coast for their next tournament for the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic, which is held in Cathedral City, Ca. Mizzou's first day of action will be on Thursday, Feb. 24, where it'll play a doubleheader against San Diego State at 7 p.m. CST and Wisconsin at 9:30 p.m. CST.