‘We were exposed’: Mizzou softball takes lessons from tough SEC weekend
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou softball team isn't sugarcoating the rough weekend it faced in a Top-11 clash against Tennessee. The Tigers got swept by the Volunteers, however, head coach Larissa Anderson said it's a good experience for her team to have this early in a season.
"We were exposed," Anderson said. "We were exposed, we needed to play better. We didn't really put any of the pieces together. Our pitching got hit really hard. I felt like our defense fell apart and that's usually the strength of our team. We didn't make plays when we needed to and when you're playing against a Top-10 team, you can't give them more than three outs....The good thing is we were exposed at this point in the season. We know what we need to work on."
You can watch the full press conference with Anderson in the video player below.
Anderson said that Tennessee did a great job of jumping all over their pitchers' mistakes. If a ball was over the plate, they jumped on top of it, as the Tigers gave up at least eight runs in each of the first two games.
Senior ace Laurin Krings, sophomore Cierra Harrison and freshman Marissa McCann all got a start against the Volunteers. Coach Anderson said she felt good about McCann's outing and the experience she gained from it. She added that the freshman was competitive in Mizzou's 4-0 loss in the series finale.
Krings had a rough outing in the opener on Friday, however. She gave up seven earned runs over about two innings of work to drop to 8-4 on the season in the Tigers' 9-0 run-rule loss.
"This is her first time being in the No. 1 role. Her entire career she hasn't been the ace and now it's a different responsibility," Anderson said. "We had an awesome conversation [on Monday] on what it's like to be the No. 1, what it's like to be the leader, like everyone's looking to you and the team needs you to have your A-game every single day. It doesn't mean you're gonna be striking out double-digit people. It's gonna be you're competitive every single game because that's what they need in order for them to feel like they have a chance. When the No. 1 pitcher doesn't feel like they can win, then the rest of the team doesn't believe as much."
It wasn't a banner weekend at the dish from MU either, as the group plated just two runs through three games. However, Anderson said she was happy to see Jefferson City native Kara Daly have some good at-bats on Sunday. She went 1-for-3, but started driving the ball towards the middle of the field, which was good progress in Anderson's eyes.
Mizzou will get a chance to bounce back in a rivalry game against Kansas on Wednesday and then a three-game set against No. 2 LSU at the Mizzou Softball Stadium, Friday through Sunday.
First pitch against the Jayhawks is at 5 p.m. in Lawrence on Wednesday, March 20.
