Cathedral City, Calif. - The 18th-ranked Mizzou Tiger Softball team split a pair of games Friday night against ranked opponents in the Mary Nutter Classic, downing the #25 Texas Longhorns, 4-3 in the first game, before falling in the nightcap to #12 UCLA, 8-0 in six innings. The split puts the Tigers at 7-2 on the season, and they'll wrap up tournament play Saturday with a single game against #14 Arizona with first pitch scheduled for 4:30 p.m. central time.
In the first game, it was a classic pitcher's duel between MU freshman lefty Paige Lowary (4-0) and UT righty Erica Wright (3-3) that turned into a furious seventh-inning rally by both teams.
With the game tied at 1-1 heading to the seventh, the visiting Tigers plated three unearned runs to take a 4-1 lead. Two runs came around to score when RF Emily Crane hit a hard chopper to first base, only to see the ball bounce off the glove of the UT first baseman and down the right field line. Senior 1B Kelsea Roth, who reached on a one-out walk, scored from second, and junior CF Taylor Gabois sped around the base paths and slid home safely ahead of the relay throw to make it 3-1 Mizzou. Crane ended up at third on the play, and that would prove big, as junior 2B Sami Fagan came through with a huge insurance run on a single to left field, scoring Crane for the 4-1 lead.
Texas wouldn't go away in the bottom of the seventh, however, as the Longhorns' first two batters reached on bloop singles. After a force out of the lead runner at third gave Mizzou one out, an error loaded the bases and a walk forced in a run to make it 4-2. A single to left center by Texas CF Lindsey Stephens brought in another run to make it 4-3. Lowary induced a foul out to Roth for the second out, and then she was replaced in the circle by sophomore RHP Tori Finucane, who on a full count, induced a weak pop up to shortstop, where Tiger senior SS Corrin Genovese gloved the ball to end the game.
It was Finucane's first save of the season, and it supported a brilliant start by Lowary, who allowed just six hits in 6.2 innings, striking out six and allowing just one earned run in her 127-pitch effort.
The Longhorns outhit the Tigers by a 6-4 margin in the game, and UT took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a bases-loaded RBI groundout. Mizzou would waste no time in tying the game in the top of the third when Roth led off by reaching on a misplayed pop up by Texas 2B Kelli Hanzel. Freshman OF Sydney Sprague pinch ran for Roth and moved up to second base on a wild pitch, and took third on a ground out by Gadbois to second. With two outs, Sprague sped home to tie the game at one apiece on a wild pitch, and that's the way the score stood until the dramatic seventh inning.
Gadbois had two of the Tigers' four hits in the game, with a pair of infield singles. She also walked to open the game and stole second but was stranded there to end the first. Fagan, who singled home what proved to ultimately be the winning run in the seventh, and sophomore C Kirsten Mack (fourth-inning single) had the other Tiger hits.
The win improved Mizzou to 20-16 alltime against their former Big 12 Conference rival. It was the first time the two programs had met since 2012, Mizzou's final year in its former conference.