CATHEDRAL CITY, Calif. - Mizzou Softball downed Cal State Fullerton, 10-2, in five innings in its opening contest at the Mary Nutter Classic to improve to 5-1 on the season. The Tigers have now scored 23 runs in their last two games after run-ruling the Titans on Thursday. Every batter in the lineup collected a hit as Mizzou smacked 13 total as a team. Four different players recorded two RBI in the rout.
Sophomore pitcher Tori Finucane (Germantown, M.D.) picked up her second win of the season, posting three strikeouts and allowing just three hits in 4.1 innings in the circle. Finucane has surrendered only one earned run in her first three starts to open the 2015 campaign.
Mizzou's bats struck early and often Thursday. After Cal State Fullerton pushed two runs across in the top of the first, the Tigers responded with a rally in the bottom of the second frame. Following a single from Amanda Sanchez (West Covina, Calif.) and back-to-back walks, Kelsea Roth (Yorba Linda, Calif.) stroked a two-RBI single to knot the score at 2-2. Senior Corrin Genovese (East Amherst, N.Y.) plated Roth with a ground-rule double to give Mizzou the lead for good.
The Tigers extended their advantage in the fourth on the hot bat of junior Sami Fagan (Dunnellon, Fla.). With runners on second and third, she ripped a single to the right side, scoring two runs and handing Mizzou a 5-2 edge. Fagan went 3-for-4 at the plate and now has a team-leading 13 RBI on the season.
Later in the fourth inning, senior Angela Randazzo (Poway, Calif.) secured her first two RBI of the 2015 campaign. She lined a bases-loaded double down the left field line to plate two more Tiger runs.
Mizzou used a power surge to solidify its big win in the fifth inning. With two outs in the frame, junior Emily Crane (Troy, Mo.) hit her first home run of the season, blasting a solo shot over the right centerfield wall. A Fagan single kept the inning alive and sophomore Kirsten Mack (Riverside, Calif.) ended the game with a walk-off, two-run home run. Mack has touched them all with home runs in each of the last two contests.
Head coach Ehren Earleywine's squad wraps up Thursday's doubleheader against Long Beach State at 10 p.m. CT. Mizzou then returns to the field Friday as the Tigers take on Texas and No. 12 UCLA in another doubleheader beginning at 5:30 p.m. CT.
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