Missouri may not be in last place in the Southeastern Conference standings, leading Auburn by three games in the loss column, but no team in the SEC is more desperate for wins than head coach Larissa Anderson’s Tigers.
Teams have to be .500 or better overall in order to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Missouri’s RPI of 36 would put it in good shape, but the Tigers (20-22, 2-10 SEC) would be ineligible if the season ended today. They dropped Wednesday’s midweek game at home against Southern Illinois, missing out on a chance to get back to that all-important .500 mark.
Trying to avoid missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006, Missouri heads to Nusz Park this weekend for a three-game series against No. 16 Mississippi State, which is itself coming off back-to-back SEC series losses.
The Tigers played a difficult non-conference schedule, which is part of the reason they are in the position they’re in now. They spent the first two weekends of the season in Florida, earning wins over Northwestern, Duke, Iowa and Clemson but losing to Notre Dame, UCF, Ohio State and San Diego State.
Missouri then went out to the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in California, playing teams like UCLA and Oregon, and also faced Oklahoma State and Nebraska before the start of SEC play. The Tigers were swept at Kentucky in their first conference series, although they do have a signature win in the middle game of their series against Oklahoma, handing the four-time reigning national champion Sooners their first loss of the year.
After avoiding a sweep with a Monday night win at Ole Miss, Missouri gave top-ranked Texas a battle in both ends of a Sunday doubleheader in Columbia but could not pull out either game. And the remaining schedule is not favorable for the Tigers, who still have to play No. 3 Texas A&M at home, travel to No. 23 Alabama and then host No. 18 Georgia. They have just one midweek left, next Tuesday against SIU Edwardsville.
While many SEC teams are just as strong at the bottom of the lineup as the top, that is not the case with Missouri. Julia Crenshaw is the Tigers’ best all-around bat with a .390 average, 11 home runs and a 1.272 OPS. Kara Daly and Taylor Ebbs have been strong as well, and Madison Walker leads Missouri with 14 homers. After that, there is a significant drop-off.
Cierra Harrison and Marissa McCann handle most of the pitching, but McCann in particular has been shaky in SEC play. Harrison earned the win against Oklahoma and is the clear ace at the moment.
While the Tigers are better than their record, the Bulldogs (31-10, 7-5) will need to take advantage of this opportunity if they want to remain in the hosting conversation. Raelin Chaffin needs to get her groove back after two rough outings last weekend at Tennessee, and Delainey Everett needs to prove she can be counted on as well.
Offensively, MSU has to get to Harrison, not just the rest of Missouri’s staff, and get out to comfortable leads in the early innings. This is a series the Bulldogs cannot afford to lose.
Tonight’s game will begin at 6 p.m., with Saturday’s first pitch at 2 p.m. and Sunday’s finale starting at 1 p.m. All games will air on SEC Network Plus.
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