Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about Mizzou Softball and the heater they’re currently on.
First, we have to start by acknowledging that standards around the program have been a bit lax for a minute. Larissa Anderson set a high bar for herself in her first few seasons on the job, and the last season and counting has been below that high bar. Things weren’t looking pretty this year after a tough 7-16 start. But a few weeks later, the outlook is quite a bit rosier. And things haven’t felt this good around Mizzou
Softball since 2024, when the Tigers last swept an SEC opponent.
“I think this was a huge success coming out, winning three games and going back home to host LSU next weekend, coming off the big win, and getting one at Alabama last weekend as well. It helped us bring momentum into this weekend,” [Freshman Abby] Carr said.
It might be a bit much to say that a sweep over Auburn — a good but maybe not great SEC opponent — is a season-defining moment. But put into the context of the whole season, it’s meaningful. It gets the Tigers over .500, gets them closer to even footing in conference play, and maintains the momentum the squad has been building over the last few weeks. Making the postseason now feels like a distinct possibility rather than an outside shot. And that means something for a program like Mizzou’s.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
A five-run first inning was all the Missouri Tigers (18-18, 3-5 SEC) needed to secure their first SEC series win over the Auburn Tigers (23-12, 2-6) on Saturday afternoon at Jane B Moore Memorial Softball Complex. With such a head start, the black & gold Tigers needed to just hold on and keep the potent Auburn offense at bay for the rest of the game. Largely, they succeeded, allowing just a handful of runs.
You can read her Saturday recap here (it came out Sunday morning). https://www.rockmnation.com/womens-softball/143115/tigers-secure-first-sec-series-win-over-auburn-with-6-3-win
Someone tell the Cardinals bullpen about this thing called “run prevention.”
“We just flush it,” [head coach Kerrick] Jackson said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to look at what we didn’t do well — which this weekend was pitching — and understand what that means. Next week, we have to pitch it better than we did. We’ve proven we’re going to play defense. We’ve proven we can score runs. We’ve proven we can pitch it well at times. We just haven’t had enough games where all three phases are clicking. Getting that figured out and getting all three phases clicking at the same time will put us in a great situation.”
Time for the Tigers to get back on track. Some revenge over kU this week would be a nice start.
- Over at Rock M+, it’s all (still) things NCAA hoops. UConn pulled a wild upset over Duke, and our commenters were all over it, our writers are tracking potential portal additions, and our future Tigers are getting us all wound up about 2026-2027.
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