Fresh off a 2-3 start to their season in St. Pete-Clearwater, the Missouri Tigers retreated to the central part of the Sunshine State for what seems like an annual matchup with Central Florida (5-1) on Wednesday
evening. In reality, the two black & gold-clad teams have played each other four times in the last five seasons, three of which have taken place in Mickey Mouse Land (Orlando). In last year’s matchup, the Knights came from way behind (5 runs!) to take the victory in extras, 6-5.
CC Harrison (3.75 ERA, 9.1 IP) was handed the ball to start the game for the second year in a row, facing off against true freshman Reagan Vokoun (0.00 ERA, 4 IP). The senior was masterful through four innings, you guys. She really was. Through three CC had faced just the minimum and didn’t even allow a hit until the fourth when a ball deflected off of her, leaving Smith unable to make a play at first.
While CC recorded no strikeouts in this one, she also didn’t have allow any walks, heavily relying on her defense to make plays, which they did. It wasn’t until the fifth that Harrison ran into any modicum of trouble. Behind in the count at 3-0 for the first time all game, Sierra Humphreys launched a pitch to deep left for her third home run of the season to tie up the game 1-1. A subsequent single to left by Samantha Rey forced her from the game for Marissa McCann.
McCann, I will put it mildly, did not remotely have her best stuff on Wednesday night. She immediately gave up a two-run shot to her first batter, Beth Damon, which made it 3-1 Knights. And then it continued. Vokoun, the starting pitcher, came in as a pinch hitter and singled through the left side before Destiny Washington was ruled safe at first on a coach’s challenge. A wild pitch got well past catcher Stefania Abruscato to bring home Zoe Calvez, the pinch runner, to make it 4-1, and a sac fly by Aubrey Evans made it 5-1. Mercifully, a groundout ended it, but the damage had been done, and the Knights had effectively slayed the Tigers.
For what it’s worth, Nathalie Touchet was effective enough in her first appearance of the season, entering in the sixth. She allowed a single and a walk, but ultimately got out of the inning unscathed.
While the final score didn’t reflect this, the Tigers actually got on the board first in this one in the second inning, after back-t0-back singles by Abby Carr and Madison Uptegrove put two on for Kayley Lenger, whose sac bunt moved them into scoring position. Sophie Smith’s walk on 4-straight loaded the bases and took out Vokoun in favor of another freshman, left hander Hildie Dempsey (2.52 ERA). A chopper by (Tiny) Claire Cahalan to third took out the lead runner and kept the bases loaded for Addy Waits, whose RBI walk made it 1-0. Unfortunately, Stefania Abruscato struck out on a full count to end what could have been a massive inning for the (away) black & gold, and the offense basically went into hibernation after that.
Hay and Lenger did what they could in the third and fourth with singles, and the duo was also responsible for two walks in the sixth, but the only other offense came courtesy of a single by freshman pinch hitter Gracie Britton —her first collegiate hit— in the seventh. That was it. When it was all said and done, the Tigers had six hits, four walks and a hit-by-pitch while stranding eight runners on base. The Knights, on the other hand, saved all their offense for last, with their six of their seven hits over the final two frames, only stranding two runners.
While Harrison was ultimately awarded the loss in this matchup, I don’t put this one on her. She was really good and had one mistake that shouldn’t have been the death of her. The Tiger offense failed her and McCann didn’t have her best stuff. It’s still early, y’all, but this is shaping up to be another long season for the Tigers.
Up Next: Missouri heads back to my fam’s neck of the woods for the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational, where they’ll face NC State (2-3) and #7 UCLA (5-0) on Friday starting at 11:30am, Northwestern (3-2) and FAU (5-0) on Saturday, and #19 Duke (4-1) on Sunday.
The trio at Rock M will be here to at the very least wrap up the weekend.
