Mizzou softball enters SEC Tournament as No. 5 seed, set for action on Wednesday
AUBURN, Ala. (KMIZ)
Mizzou softball's 13-10 finish in conference action was enough to lock up the No. 5 seed in the 2024 SEC Tournament in Auburn, Alabama. The Tigers will get into the action on Wednesday, as the team will face the winner of Tuesday's game between Kentucky and Ole Miss.
Head coach Larissa Anderson and company ended the regular-season on a high note, completing their first sweep of the year against South Carolina. However, the attention now turns to making a deep run in the postseason.
"I think we did extremely well in our seeding [in the SEC Tournament]. It's crazy when I look at how this seeding is and how we were a game or two away from being in top four," Anderson said. "It's pretty remarkable, especially when our preseason polling, where we started and where we picked and really what the expectations were for everyone on the outside...and where we finished."
You can watch the full press conference with Coach Anderson, ahead of the SEC Tournament, in the video player below.
If all goes well in the conference tournament, MU has a possibility of playing four games in four days against some of the top competition in the country. Anderson said that a lot of the focus now switches to recovery. She has communicated to her team that it is going to be a grind and they are going to be mentally and physically exhausted, so they have to prepare for it.
With the season that No. 13 Mizzou had in 2024, it feels a bit like a forgone conclusion that the program will host its third NCAA Regional in four years. Of course, it will not be official until the selection show on Sunday, May 12 at 6 p.m., but Anderson said she feels like, with what her team showed this season, it's a no-brainer.
"I don't even try to pretend to put on an NCAA cap on. I stay in my lane. I just want to give them as much information, so when they look at it on paper they believe that we are a top-16 team, if not a top-8 team," she said. "I mean, when I look at our strength of schedule, what we've done, our top-10 wins...it's a no-brainer, but I'm not in that room to be able to fight for Mizzou, so all we can do is fight on the field."
The Tigers' first postseason opportunity to fight will come on Wednesday, May 8 at about 1 p.m. at Jane B. Moore Field at Auburn. Anderson and company are no stranger to finding success away from home. In fact, Mizzou has the most neutral site and/or road wins of any other softball team in America. Anderson said that her team's comfort level on the road is all about creating routines and being disciplined.
Mizzou will look to keep that discipline against the winner of the game between Ole Miss and Kentucky on Wednesday.
