May 10, 2005

Making their 10th annual appearance at the Big 12 Softball Tournament, May 11-14, in Oklahoma City, Okla., the No. 18 Tigers (38-11, 10-8) will open action against No. 7 Baylor, (45-10, 11-7) Thursday, May 12, at 11 a.m. (CT) in ASA Hall of Fame Stadium. Other teams competing in Missouri's side of the bracket include No. 1 seed Texas A&M, No. 8 seed Oklahoma State and No. 9 seed Texas Tech. Missouri, enters the tournament as the fifth-ranked seed after splitting with Nebraska in the final regular-season series, May 7-8.

Missouri leads Baylor 17-11 in the all-time series but is tied 1-1 with the Bears when competing in the Big 12 tournament. The last time the two teams met in post-season was May 2, 2003 and Baylor walked away with a 5-4 victory in 11 innings, eliminating the Tigers from contention. Missouri's only victory over Baylor in post-season action came May 2, 1997, when the Tigers run-ruled the Bears, 10-2, eventually making their way to the Big 12 Championship game where they won Missouri's first and only Big 12 title.

Competing against other teams in their bracket, the Tigers are 9-4 and against all 10 Big 12 teams hold a 13-14 record in the tournament. Missouri has the fourth-best Big 12 tournament record in the league (.481).

Should the Tigers defeat Baylor and advance in the bracket, Missouri will play the winner of the Texas A&M-Oklahoma State/Texas Tech victor in a televised game broadcast live Thursday, May 12, on Fox Sports at 4:30 p.m. (CT).

Stats for the entire tournament will be available at www.big12sports.com and fans of the Missouri softball team can keep up with the Tigers by visiting www.mutigers.com.