It may be a lost season, but it’ll prepare them for the future
Senior Send-off
Mizzou Softball will honor five seniors, three of whom have been a part of this team since their freshman year, this weekend in the team’s final weekend series against a (surprise!) ranked Georgia team.
This group’s graduation also coincides with the ending of my fourth full season of covering Mizzou Softball – I have humble beginnings as I started as just a girl with on the berm with a beer and an iPad during the 2021 Regionals – and I graduated to the press box as Kara Daly, Julia Crenshaw, and Jayci Kruse arrived at Mizzou to start their careers in the black & gold.
Aaaah, memories.
This weekend, they will wrap up their final games at Mizzou Softball Stadium, along with Taylor Ebbs, who joined the team from Kentucky for her final season, and Maya Dodge, the former MVC Player of the Year who came on from UNI last season.
I can’t imagine any members of this class envisioned that this would be how their final seasons as Tigers would go, ending at the SEC Tourney next week without a NCAA regional on the horizon. Especially with Crenshaw and Daly, both of whom are battling fractures (wrist & hand, respectively) that they refuse to succumb to and are having career years.
Daly is hitting .278 on the year, which is the highest of her career, and is also putting up career numbers in slugging (.571, +0.61), on-base percentage and fewest strikeouts (36, -11)), and putting up her second highest numbers** in runs (25), doubles (9), home runs (10) and RBI. Despite playing in fewer games than any of her previous seasons (47 as of this typing), this has been a good year for her. (note: her career numbers are mostly from 2023 when she played in 61 games)
Crenshaw is having the season of her LIFE, with career numbers in average (.377, more than 100 points higher than her next best in 2023), runs (+18), hits (+8), doubles, homeruns (+5), slugging percentage (.760, +0.154), walks (34, +16), and on-base percentage
“They’re leading by example,” Larissa said in Tuesday’s press conference, “They easily could have packed it in when you’re not having the success that you expect on the field… (But) they fought like crazy to get back on the field, and that in itself is leadership. They’re setting the example for those younger players on what it means to be in-state. That’s what they’re doing. That’s what they have pride in, how they represent this program every single day. That’s the legacy they’re leaving.”
Not to be discounted, Taylor Ebbs is having a great season as well, and Jayci Kruse, mostly out of necessity due to staff depth, is pitching the most of her career and doing well in limited action. Ebbs is sporting a career-high in on-base percentage (.396, +0.300), walks (17), RBI (tied, 31), home runs (tied, 10), hits (40), and runs (22). She has her second highest batting average (.301) and second fewest strikeouts of her career (24). Kruse has more than tripled her appearances this year (7), and quadrupled her innings usage (5.1), while maintaining a decent ERA at 3.94.
In the Rearview
In hindsight, this schedule was perhaps a bit… too hard for such a young team. They’re baby Tigers, after all! (For reference, this team has 10 upperclassmen, 8 sophomores, and 7 freshmen.) They played the nation’s third hardest schedule, and are the only team in the NCAA history to face three no. 1 teams in a season. How lucky for them?! The Tigers played 29 games against top 25 opponents and had a 7-22 record. They played 12 games against top 10 opponents and went 3-9 (W’s over #8 Duke, #1 OU & #1 A&M)… so yeah… it’s been tough for a young team who has some talent but isn’t quite sure how to win at times. More on that in a bit.
Back to the tough as nails schedule… In the preseason tournaments, Anderson said they don’t have a lot of control over who they’re playing, but after this year, she mentioned that they will be making some adjustments to the schedule, including some midweeks.
“With the addition of Texas and Oklahoma,” she said, “This schedule was set two years ago, so there were some certain things that were out of our control. But with the conference being so unbelievably competitive as it is, our non-conference schedule… we have to take a different look on what our strength of schedule is to put ourselves in a better situation that we’re not having to be in this down the stretch, where we’re fighting to be above .500.”
The Tigers were 19-12 in the non-con, and while wins over Northwestern, Duke, Iowa, Clemson, Ohio State, Liberty, and Nebraska helped, they also had losses to a 22-24 kU team (ewww), mid-major Southern Illinois, a 19-28 Minnesota team (I blame Krings for their preparation), and a 23-30 Notre Dame team.
So against a ridiculously talented conference, going 19-12 just wasn’t enough.
“We’ve been counting games, probably for three weeks now, and we knew what we needed to do in order to make the postseason,” Anderson said. “And it’s been unfortunate that we haven’t been able to do some of those things, but they haven’t quit. You could easily (see this) when teams face adversity and they feel like things are unattainable. They easily, especially now in today’s day and age, they usually could have packed it in, and then it’d be a dumpster fire… You can’t recover from some of those things, but they work hard every single day.”
Statistically, this season was very similar to last season, but Anderson reminded us, that group knew how to win. “You might have the same batting average and the same slugging percentage and the same on-base percentage, but when players know how to win, then they’re getting it at the right times. This team didn’t know how to be able to capitalize and take advantage of some of these opportunities.” Last year, she said, they made it successful, and while this year has been a struggle, they’ll learn from it.
“You have to learn from every single experience that you have to realize, what did I do, what didn’t I do? So I can make better adjustments for tomorrow, for next year, and for their entire future careers.”
Despite a season that is very likely to end with a loss in the SEC tourney, there are still positives to take away.
“I am so proud of what they have fought through,” Anderson said. “Not only injuries, but adversity, weather and travel. All of those other things, add in having a young team, you could have easily gone the other way. But they still have a smile on their face, still competing, still work hard, still very competitive. We’re keeping the games close. I would just like to see us, obviously, come away with a couple victories.”
Last Time Out
The Tigers were swept in Tuscaloosa, losing 4-2, 7-6 and 2-0, respectively, and in two of three games, like so many times this season, the narrow losses come down to a lack of base traffic and really untimely mistakes. On Friday, the Tigers stranded 9(!) runners and actually out-hit the Tide, but alas, they couldn’t get the bats going when it mattered most. On Saturday, after Julia Crenshaw tied the game 6-6 in the top of the seventh on a three-run shot, an untimely throwing error by freshman shortstop Madison Uptegrove ended the game, allowing an unearned run to score off of closer Taylor Pannell. And on Sunday, despite a strong outing from Marissa McCann, the Tigers’ bats were quiet.
How to Watch:
Missouri Tigers (23-29, 4-17) v. #24 Georgia Bulldogs (29-17, 6-14)
Thursday, May 1 at 6pm
TV: SEC+
GIVEAWAY: Truman-style Squishmallow; Columbia Carnival; Mizzou FB autographs
Stats: https://mutigers.com/sports/softball/schedule?path=softball
Friday, May 2 at 5pm
TV: SEC+
GIVEAWAY: Replica jersey; Mizzou Gym autographs
Saturday, May 3 at 1pm
TV: SEC+
GIVEAWAY: Ice cream; postgame autographs
Final Thoughts
“Yes, we want to win every single series,” LA said. “And we’ve been trying to do that every single weekend, but it would be nice to be able to leave your mark on your own field on Senior Day and be able to go out with a win.”