April 21, 2002
Columbia, Mo. - The University of Missouri softball team extended a winning streak and then saw it end on Sunday. The Tigers prolonged their weeklong winning streak to five in Game 1 of the day against Texas Tech, 6-1. The Red Raiders then promptly ended the streak taking out the Tigers in Game 2, 9-1 in six innings. The Tigers are now 28-29 overall and 4-12 in the Big 12 following the split. Head coach Jay Miller said he was pleased to see the Tigers take advantage of three Texas Tech errors in the first game, but was disappointed with the Tigers approach in the second game.
"We came out and made things happen and were definitely the aggressor in the first game," Miller said. "We were flat in every aspect of the game in Game 2 and they jumped all over us. We can't afford to have that kind of complacency against any team in the Big 12."
The Tigers got on the board early in the contest on a sacrifice fly ball by junior Melanie Fisher that scored junior Sara Vassmer, who led off the inning with a single. Junior Ingrid Werner had trouble with control walking four and was lifted after giving up a no out single by Rebecca Eimen in the top of third that would have scored a run if Vassmer had not thrown a perfect strike from left field to home plate cutting down the base runner.
Freshman pitcher Erin Kalka would then enter and immediately gave up a single to Kristi Robles that scored Esmerlda Perez to tie the game at 1-1. Kalka would settle down from there allowing the Red Raiders only one more hit while striking out three improving her record to 14-11. The Tigers would provide five more runs of support for Kalka in the fourth, all of which were unearned. Fisher would begin the inning with a single and ended the inning with a ground out to the second baseman. Between those two at bats, the Tigers would record five hits and five runs on three Red Raider errors while leaving two on base giving the Tigers a 6-1 lead which would end up being the final tally.
The Tigers win in game one extended their current winning streak to five games and also extended Erin Kalka's personal winning streak to three straight contests. Sophomore Rachael McGinnis and Vassmer led the Tiger offensive attack both going 2-for-3 and both scoring a run. The Missouri defense was also solid committing only one error while throwing out four potential runs at the plate.
Things would not go as well in the second game for Mizzou as the Red Raiders came out on fire scoring two runs off of Werner in 2/3 innings of work and two runs off of freshman reliever Veronica Flournoy after 1/3 inning of work. Kalka would once again enter the game in the top of the second in relief of Flournoy after three straight singles with no outs. The Red Raiders had already jumped out to a 4-0 lead after two innings though and Mizzou could not get any offense going. TTU would spring for four more runs in the top of the sixth on five hits to take a 9-0 lead. Tech starter Maggie Ayers was outstanding giving up only three hits while holding Mizzou to only one run, a sixth inning tally that made the score 9-1 on the final play of the game, in 6.0 complete innings of work.
The Tigers now welcome Saint Louis to University Field for their final home games of the year on Tuesday before traveling to Texas A & M next weekend to close out the regular season. For more information on Missouri Softball, log on to www.mutigers.com.