Tigers Fall to UCLA, 8-0

Friday, February 20

Cathedral City, Calif.

7:30PM

University of Missouri

7-2

UCLA

11-3

Missouri

UCLA Bruins

2/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Softball

Box Score

Feb. 21, 2015

Final Stats

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 nightcap, the Tigers were done in by a four-run bottom of the fourth by the Bruins, with all four runs being unearned after a two-out bases-loaded error, when freshman 3B Amanda Sanchez couldn't handle a chopper. All runners were safe on the play, and when the ball rolled away from Sanchez, a second runner scored to make it 2-0 UCLA. After an infield single re-loaded the bases, Bruin P Ali Carda plated two more to make it 4-0 with a double to right center.

That was essentially the ballgame, but the Bruins were able to close it out in run-rule fashion in the bottom of the sixth when they scored four more times on three hits, a walk and a hit batter. All four runs in the sixth were charged to starter Tori Finucane, who fell to 2-2 with the loss after giving up six hits in 5.1 innings, with eight runs (four earned).

Mizzou's offense touched Bruin starter Carda for seven hits and had base runners in every inning, but just couldn't scratch out clutch hits to sustain any rallies. Tiger leadoff batters reached safely in three of six innings, and Mizzou had two runners on three different innings, including first and second with no outs and the top of the order coming up in the fifth. However, Carda worked out of trouble, getting a strikeout, a fly out and a ground out to end the threat.

Junior RF Emily Crane had a pair of base hits in the game, and she was joined in the two-hit column by Sanchez, the native Californian who was playing before a big fan club of family and friends. Sophomore C Kirsten Mack, senior SS Corrin Genovese and sophomore LF Kayla Kingsley all had a single each to help the Tiger attack.