Mizzou pitching staff works to bounce back from a ‘disappointing’ SEC opening weekend

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

For the first time since the 2023 season, Mizzou softball is opening up the SEC slate 0-3 through opening weekend. Coincidentally, that winless start in 2023 came at the hands of the same team that handed it to them now, in 2025: the Kentucky Wildcats.

Head coach Larissa Anderson's team lost three-straight to the Cats over the weekend, despite mounting comeback efforts in the back half of each of those games.

Anderson said she was disappointed in the performance of her pitching staff, down in Lexington, as that group gave up 20 runs in a three-game span. Sophomore Marissa McCann got two starts against Kentucky, on Friday and Sunday, while junior Cierra Harrison took the circle to start the Saturday game.

"The biggest thing is the why. So, they got to go back and they have to look at film and they have to see what balls are getting batters out and what's being hit hard," Anderson said. "I'll talk about McCann a little bit. She was extremely effective getting ahead, she was getting strike one, you know, controlling the bat. But, she was putting the ball too much over the plate with strike one and she had a lot of 0-1 hits and 1-2 hits and, you know, she did the hard work in getting ahead. Now she has to have a little bit more command and effective pitches when she is ahead and getting them to swing at borderline pitches so the ball's not hit as hard. That's really going to be the difference is, you know, you have to get ahead and we're not being hit on first pitch. We got to be able to move the ball off the plate and change speeds effectively so that they're not squaring balls up, especially when we're ahead in the count."

You can watch the full press conference with Coach Anderson in the video player below.

The Mizzou pitching staff will be looking closely at what the count is telling them over the next few days of practice, ahead of the Mizzou Invitational. Coach Anderson said her group needs to be better at situational pitching and keeping the opposing bats off-balance.

Offensively, the Tigers were getting hits, but struggled to capitalize with runners on base. In each of the team's losses in Kentucky, MU made a final push at the plate to bring them within striking distance of the Wildcats. That's the type of energy that Anderson would like to see at the dish, from start to finish.

"You know, it's like we're Jekyll and Hyde. We have extremely strong at-bats, very competitive and that's what you saw at the end. Then, in that last seventh inning where we had the leadoff batter get on base, the next three at bats were not very competitive. We just have to have more consistency in that. We can't panic when runners are in scoring position. We have to have harder outs, quality at-bats in those situations and not try to do too much," she said. "The potential is there. Like, that's the good thing. The potential's there and they have the ability to be able to do so and they're very strong offensively. It's just being able to do it at the right time."

One big positive of SEC opening weekend came in the series finale against the Wildcats.

Rock Bridge alum Abby Hay finally got out of a slump that stretched back into mid-February. The Columbia-native hadn't registered a hit since Feb. 13, but slugged her way out of it with a 2-for-3 day at the plate, on Sunday. She tallied two RBI, two runs, a walk, a double and a home run.

Anderson said that offensive effort was good to see from sophomore because they will need her in Southeastern Conference action.

"She needed that. You know, you press a lot, as a hitter, when you're not getting the results that you need and even the at-bats she had prior to yesterday, she had some loud outs. She had some line drives. She hit the ball extremely well. So, it was good to see that she was just squaring up the ball and when a hitter is in a slump like that, walking is probably the most effective thing that they can do...So she's been drawing a lot of walks, but it was really great to see that she had the double off the wall and then obviously the home run," Anderson said.

The Tigers will now turn their attention to its home-opening weekend in the Mizzou Invitational. South Dakota State, Quinnipiac, Princeton, Michigan and Kansas City will all be in town for action Thursday through Sunday.

The game against Kansas City was tacked on to the end of the tournament, after it was rescheduled due to inclement weather on Tuesday, March 4. That game was originally supposed to be MU's first game at home, so Thursday's game against South Dakota State will be a big homecoming for Anderson's crew.

"We're gonna have a great week of practice. The weather's going to be awesome...We've played 24 games and they've all been on the road, so being able to play in our own stadium, in our own locker room and have a real good home game routine, that's exciting in itself," Anderson said.

Mizzou will face South Dakota at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 13. That game will be followed by a matchup with Princeton at about 5 p.m.