‘Why not us?’: Mizzou softball looks to capitalize on pair of Top-10 clashes to end regular-season
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Mizzou softball coach Larissa Anderson summed up the 2026 season perfectly, in her opening statement to local media on Monday morning.
"Up and down," she said.
That comes after the Tigers' dropped another series to a ranked Southeastern Conference foe, over the weekend. No. 25 South Carolina took two out of three games from Coach Anderson and company, including a win in shutout fashion in the series rubber match, on Sunday. With that, Mizzou moved to 24-24 on the season and 7-11 in conference play.
Despite the adversity that her young Tiger team has faced over the course of the 2026 campaign, they are still in position to make the NCAA Tournament, at this point. That is, if they can maintain their position at the .500 mark, as having a .500 winning percentage is a requirement to make it to the postseason. However, the road will only get more difficult from here, as Mizzou has a pair of series against Top-10 SEC teams on the horizon.
Anderson said following their most recent series against the Gamecocks, she did some reflecting, which she discussed in her opening statement to reporters.
"Another tough weekend. You know, [we were] able to take away a win. You know, obviously you're always looking to win every single game, but up and down. I think it's been the story of the season. I've been doing a lot of reflecting and, you know, I always go back to how I was raised and my parents owned two restaurants for almost 50 years. When you're self-employed, you create your own success and failure and you learn how to overcome adversity snd you have to create opportunities for yourself and overcome some of those things. It's those qualities and characteristics that I'm trying to instill in my team," Anderson said. "I think about this generation and, you know, there's a lot of coaches that are very vocal on social media right now and LSU's baseball coach is one that continues to come to mind. It's getting our players to understand that they can handle hard, that I believe in every single one of them, I believe in this team, that failure doesn't mean that you are a failure. It means you just failed at what you were trying to do and that it's okay. They just have to grow from it and continue to build and get stronger and realize that they can do hard things. So, that's what I want them to learn from these experiences. It doesn't define who they are. It's just a moment in time that we have to overcome."
You can watch the full press conference with Anderson in the video player below.
At the end of the day, Anderson believes that the trials and adversity that her team is facing now will only help them in the future, as the Tigers have the youngest roster in the SEC.
When you do have a team that young, leadership becomes more important than ever. That was one of Coach Anderson's main concerns, following Sunday's loss to the No. 25 Gamecocks. She told local media after that rubber match that she felt like her team stopped fighting after failing to score on a bases loaded opportunity in the second inning. Anderson said that fight needs to come from her players and be driven by the leaders in the dugout.
"Yesterday, after our game, there was a collective group of our leaders and educating them on taking some ownership. What are the conversations that they're having within the dugout and within the locker room? They have to take some responsibility for that because it can't just come from the coaching staff," Anderson said. "Again, like we're there and they have to be an extension of our message and they have to be have it the same language and not expect everybody to just do it just because we're saying to do it, they have to do it because they believe in it and then they're continuing to send that same message. So, we had those conversations yesterday."
Coach Anderson did pinpoint one leader that she's been impressed with, this season: true freshman outfielder Sidney Forrester. Despite her age, the leader of the Tigers said the Oklahoma native is a natural-born leader, who's extremely competitive, passionate and not afraid to speak up. The coaching staff is putting in an effort to make sure they support Forrester in that role.
The Tigers' head coach also added that senior pitcher Cierra Harrison can have a massive impact in the dugout, as well.
"Cierra Harrison is extremely powerful leader and can use her voice to benefit the entire team," Anderson said. "When you hear her in the dugout, she is so unbelievably passionate. If she's pitching or she's not, like, completely supportive. So, it's continue to give those players those opportunities. But again, be comfortable in speaking up in front of the group and that's something that not a lot of a lot of people are very comfortable doing."
The team will now turn the page to games against SIUE and No. 6 Arkansas, over the course of the next week.
The game against the Cougars was a late addition to the schedule. In fact, it just became official on Monday afternoon, as Coach Anderson mentioned in her press conference that she was looking to get one more midweek game confirmed on their schedule.
MU will throw out the first pitch against SIUE at 6 p.m. in Columbia on Wednesday and then head out to Fayetteville for some rivalry action.
"[Arkansas is] playing extremely well. They're very, very confident, they're they're a veteran team, they have the full package. You know, they play great defense, they have a very strong lineup and they have a lot of depth in their in their pitching staff. It's a really fun atmosphere to play in, so I'm really looking forward to this weekend. You know, our team hopefully can rise to the challenge and, again, the game doesn't care. The game doesn't care how where Arkansas is ranked or what they're capable doing. We know that we have an opportunity and we can beat anybody in the conference when we play well and we just have to go out and we have to do that for all 21 outs," Anderson said.
The Tigers will look to bounce back from a weekend filled with some inconsistency at the plate. On Friday, MU opened up the series with a two-run outing in the opening loss, but followed that up with a five-run win on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, the bats went cold, altogether, as Coach Anderson's team lost in shutout fashion.
The pitching staff took some bumps and bruises, as well, but overall found success in a couple of starts against South Carolina. Starter Marissa McCann tossed a gem in Saturday's win for her first-ever SEC complete-game shutout. Mizzou followed that up with another strong start in the circle on Sunday, from senior Cierra Harrison. Although MU lost that game, Harrison gave them a shot, throwing 4.1 innings and allowing just one solo home run.
Anderson said that Harrison's competitiveness has been fun to watch, this season, but they still wonder if there's a few tweaks that need to be made.
"I think with the frustrating thing is the games that she's throwing, it's trying to figure out why she doesn't get all the calls behind the plate. So is it something that we're doing? Is it where the ball is breaking in the zone? Is it the look that the umpires are getting? Do we need to make some adjustments with [catcher Stefania Abruscato], because [McCann and Harrison] throw completely different?," Anderson said. "Cierra's release-point is different because she's not as tall as McCann. So, it's a different look for an umpire, so it's figuring out some of those types of things to give her a little bit more of an advantage because I think she gets squeezed and I'm not saying it's because of the umpires. I think it's something that we could be doing a better job to give the umpires a better look because it's such a low release point."
Over the course of the 2026 campaign, Mizzou has shown that it can hang with some of the best teams in the nation, knocking off four ranked Southeastern Conference squads, this year.
So, what's Coach Anderson's message headed into pivotal series against No. 6 Arkansas and No. 9 Tennessee?
"We're not going to get caught up where anybody's ranked like everyone in the SEC can beat anybody at any time. I mean, that's just how brutal and tough it is. So, why not us?...Like, the game doesn't care. You know, Tennessee and Arkansas, they know that they're going to postseason like they've had really, really strong seasons. They're fighting to host Regionals and Super Regionals. Why not be the underdog and take them out of that ranking? So, why not us? But, again, like we've gone out and we've beaten some really, really tough teams, so we got to believe that we can go down there and do the same thing."
Up next - Mizzou will face SIUE on Wednesday at 6 p.m., before heading to Fayetteville.
