Columbia, Mo. - In game one of the doubleheader between the Mizzou Tigers and the Southeast Missouri Redhawks the Tigers came away victorious after a two-run, two-out, walk-off single in the seventh from senior 1B Kelsea Roth (Yorba Linda, Cali.) gave the Tigers the 2-1 win.
Freshman pitcher Paige Lowary (Dallas Center, Ia.) got the start in the circle for Mizzou and pitched a complete game to earn her eighth victory of the season. She allowed only three hits and four walks while striking out a career-high nine and giving up one unearned run to move to 8-0 on the season.
In the circle for game two was sophomore Tori Finucane coming off a South Carolina series in which she earned two wins including a shutout in the series finale. Finucane continued her string of success by commanding the strike zone and not surrendering a walk in her four innings pitched.
While it took seven innings for the Tiger bats to get going in the first game they came out hot in the second game. A leadoff single for redshirt junior OF Taylor Gadbois (Maryville, Mo.) and a walk of redshirt junior catcher Sami Fagan led to a two-RBI double from senior shortstop Corrin Genovese (East Amherst, N.Y.).
The rally didn't stop there as freshman 3B Amanda Sanchez (West Covina, Cali.) drew a walk before senior OF Angela Randazzo doubled Genovese home to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. Sophomore 2B Natalie Fleming (Silex, Mo.) continued the hot first inning with a single that scored Sanchez from third and pushed the Mizzou lead to 4-0.
Fagan reached again in the second on an RBI single that drove in Gadbois for Mizzou's fifth run. Roth followed up her walk-off performance from the first game by belting a three-run home run to dead center off the scoreboard to give the Tigers an 8-0 lead.
Freshman infielder Paige Bange (Jefferson City, Mo.) got into the action, launching a solo home run to left field for her first career hit in just her third at bat of the year while pinch-hitting for Sanchez. Bange's bomb gave the Tigers their sixth game this season with multi-homeruns and a 9-0 lead heading into the third inning.
SEMO hopped on the scoreboard when senior Kayla Fortner crushed a ball to deep center field for a solo home run to cut the Tiger lead to 9-1 in the fourth. The Tigers answered right back in the bottom half by stringing together three singles before a fielder's choice grounder drove in Bange for the 10-1 Mizzou lead.
Finucane's final line came out to four innings pitched, one run on two hits with no walks and four strikeouts with the win moving her record to 6-3 on the season. Sophomore pitcher Cheyenne Baxter (Norbone, Mo.) relieved Finucane and allowed two hits before a double-play and a ground out gave the Tigers the run-rule 10-1 victory.
The win moves the Tigers to 15-3 on the season, they travel to North Carolina this weekend to compete in the NC State Hyatt Place Invitational. Mizzou will have five games in the invitational over the weekend with double headers on Friday and Saturday.
For all your Mizzou Softball news and updates head to MUTIGERS.com and make sure to follow them on Twitter @MizzouSoftball.
GAME NOTES
With today's win, Mizzou improves to 15-3 on the season.
Fresh off a 6-for-9 performance against South Carolina, Corrin Genovese plated two runners with an RBI double in the first inning. The senior is second on the team with a scorching .444 batting average with runners in scoring position.
Angela Randazzo followed Genovese with an RBI double of her own later in the first inning. Randazzo is seeing the ball well lately as she has hit safely in seven straight games.
Freshman Sydney Sprague made her first career start and recorded her first career at bat in the first inning.
Amanda Sanchez drew a walk in the first frame, extending her lead as the team's most walked batter. She has recorded nine base on balls this season and has reached base safely in 10 consecutive games, tied for the longest such streak of any player this season
Kelsea Roth launched a mammoth three-run homerun in the second inning to break the game open for Mizzou. That is the senior's second homerun of the year, and second in just a few days as she hit her first on March 9 against South Carolina.
Roth also now stands alone as sixth all-time in career homeruns at Mizzou with 33. She just passed Mizzou great Lindsey Ubrun with Wednesday's homerun.
Freshman Paige Bange hit a homerun in the second inning as well, marking not only the first homerun of her career, but also the first hit of her career. The shot came in just her third career at bat. She ended the day 2-for-2.
With Bange and Roth's homeruns, the Tigers have now had six different games in which they have hit multiple homeruns. They are 6-0 when hitting multiple homeruns.
Freshman Sara Harvey also recorded her first career hit in Wednesday's game. She has appeared in five games this season, and like Bange, also recorded her first hit in her third career at bat.
Taylor Gadbois recorded her team-best eighth multi-hit game of the season.
Gadbois also stole two bases on the day, increasing her total to a team-best 15 stolen bags on the year.
The Tigers are now 14-0 on the year when scoring more than three runs in a game.