Mizzou softball gets shutout in series rubber match against No. 25 South Carolina
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou softball team will play the final stretch of the regular-season with little room for error, after falling to No. 25 South Carolina, 4-0, in Sunday's series rubber match.
With the loss, head coach Larissa Anderson and her team moved to 24-24 on the season and 7-11 in Southeastern Conference play. Staying at the .500 mark will be a top priority for this team, if they hope to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. However, the road will only get more difficult from here, as a pair of Top-10 SEC clashes lay on the horizon.
In Sunday's loss, Gamecocks starter Jori Heard spun a masterpiece for the road team. She pitched all 7.0 innings and allowed just three hits, while striking out six Tiger batters in her first complete-game shutout of the 2026 season.
MU starter Cierra Harrison had a solid day in the circle, really just making one bad pitch, which resulted in a solo home run for South Carolina to go up 1-0 in the second inning.
However, Mizzou had a chance to get that run back and then some in the home half of the second. Back-to-back hits from freshman Sidney Forrester and Tolton alum Madison Uptegrove, as well as a walk for junior Claire Cahalan loaded up the bases for the Tigers, with just one out. Despite that massive opportunity, Sophie Smith and Kayley Lenger both struck out swinging to end the inning with no damage done.
Coach Anderson pinpointed that as the moment things changed for her team.
"The wind just came out of their sails," she said. "The game's not over. The game wasn't over in that moment and they were acting like it was and they didn't have the fight to claw their way back. That's a victim mentality and that's what discourages me. Like, that's what I'm mostly upset with. The loss is the loss, but it's how your team reacts to adversity and I want them to grow through adversity and get stronger and claw their way and fight."
You can watch the full postgame press conference with Anderson in the video player below.
The game held steady at 1-0 through the the fifth inning, when junior Marissa McCann took for Harrison in the circle, with one runner on second base and no outs. However, she struggled out of the gates in her relief effort, as South Carolina's Jamie Mackay and Karley Shelton hit back-to-back home runs to make it a four-run game.
From there, Heard closed it out for the road team, as Mizzou went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position in Sunday's loss.
The Tigers did see a good closing effort from freshman pitcher Abby Carr, who put in 2.0 innings of work, ending with a pair of strikeouts and no hits allowed.
Up next - Mizzou has a critical series on the road against No. 6 Arkansas on the books. First pitch in the series opener is slated for 5 p.m. on Friday.
