Two unlikely heroes lead Tigers over Bulldogs

Can’t say I saw this one coming

Plot Twist

For six and a half innings, Game 1 of the final regular season series between the Georgia Bulldogs (29-18, 6-15 SEC) and Missouri Tigers (24-29, 5-17) moved at a swift pace and so closely resembled the ones that came before it— with the Tigers on the brink of yet another mind-numbing loss, undone by their lack of offensive firepower and a few pitches left over the plate. It was redundant. We all had, as my favorite lyricist Taylor Swift sings in Exile, “seen this film before, and we didn’t like the ending.” The crowd did what they could to keep the atmosphere lively, but I think we all were thinking the same thing. Hell, I had written about just a few hours earlier.

Georgia starter Lilli Backes pitched flawlessly early on. She had a one-hitter through five and seven strikeouts. She did give up four walks, but only one would end up coming around to score. When asked what made her so effective, head coach Larissa Anderson said succinctly, “Her change up.”

“Her change up is really, really effective,” she said. “It tunnels the same as all her other pitches so it’s really hard for the hitter to be able to differentiate. So if the ball is coming at you and it’s coming at the same plane, like you can’t tell the speed of out her hand, and by the time you make up your mind to swing, that’s when it’s slower when it gets to home plate and that’s where they’re really caught off guard.”

The pitching on Mizzou’s side was good enough, but Marissa McCann’s start, just as so many others this season, was blemished by the long ball. Despite the seven punchouts and no walks, Anderson said she didn’t think she had her best stuff today, while acknowledging that you can still win without your best stuff. “You can have limited control, but it’s just enough movement that they’re not able to square it up and then keeping them off balance.”

Missouri softball faces Georgia on Thursday, May 1, 2025 at the Mizzou Softball Stadium in Columbia.

“I felt like she (Marissa) lived on one side of the plate. When she’s having great command, she throws to both sides. I really didn’t feel like she threw to the outer half to right-handed hitters with really good command. Where she was effective was in her rise ball in the inner half and getting them to chase some balls out of the zone. I also don’t think her change up was a factor today. I think she only threw a couple for a strike.”

But… plot twist. This game did NOT end up being like the others, and for the first time this season, in their final series of the season, they got a W in Game One.

We should start at the beginning, though, especially because I had written all this stuff already and I refuse to erase perfectly good writing.

Same old, Same old

Following a solid first inning by Missouri starter Marissa McCann in which she worked around a double by striking out the side, Julia Crenshaw reached on a weirdly emphatic four-pitch walk — she stared down the pitcher and basically flung her bat — to lead off the game before Stefania Abruscato reached on an error. We discussed in the press box that we’d seen JC be less excited about one of her many leadoff homers than by this walk; it was odd behavior.

Crenshaw wisely stayed put at third when Madison Walker singled to left — she definitely would have been out — which loaded the bases for Taylor Ebbs, who hit into a fielder’s choice and took out Crenshaw at home. Daly’s two-out sac fly brought in Fania to give the Tigers an early lead 1-0 before they re-loaded the bases with a Madison Uptegrove walk. Kayley Lenger struck out though, and just like that, the Tigers had stranded three.

(Michael Baniewicz, Rock M)

The Tigers’ bats, apparently not realizing that the calendar had hit May, went into hibernation for much of the rest of the game, going down 1-2-3 in the second, and aside from another error at first base that allowed Ebbs to reach, did the same thing in the third, and again in the fourth. In the fifth, Abruscato reached on a walk, but that was it. Back to sleep. In fact, through five innings, Mizzou had managed only one hit to Georgia’s five.

Credit the Georgia starter, who Mya Dodge said, just like Anderson above, that it was the change up. “She was keeping us off-balance with the change up, locating the ball well and getting some swings and misses.”

On the Bulldogs’ side, it took all of a couple pitches for them to tie things up in the top of the second, as designated player Lyndi Rae Davis launched a solo shot to center to make it 1-1. Credit to McCann, however, as she worked around just a single after that and picked up her fourth strikeout, and then worked a quick 1-2-3 inning in the third.

In the fourth, she got help from her defense, as after allowing a double, Abruscato launched a ball that didn’t even take a bounce from right field to get the double play at third base and end the inning. Witness.

In the fifth, McCann allowed two more baserunners on a hit by pitch and a bunt single but was able to get out of it with her fifth strikeout of the game. In the sixth, however, she wasn’t as lucky, as Jaydyn Goodwin smacked a rise ball left up in the zone to center to break up the tie and make it 2-1, Georgia. In a game with such anemic offense, this seemed like a death blow.

When asked about how this game early on felt eerily similar to others, and what they did differently this time to get a different outcome, Anderson explained, “I’m not going to say luck, but sometimes it’s the right swing or the right pitch, which can be luck, but it’s also preparation.”

(Michael Baniewicz, Rock M)

“You know, McCann, two pitches got away from her and two pitches that were hit were solo shots… (For) someone who throws the ball up in the zone, we’re lucky that there weren’t two-run, three-run homer runs,” she said. “It was just a solo shot, so it keeps the game close enough for to be able to have the game within reach, and anyone through the lineup could be able to hit a home run… It’s just a matter of having the right pitch at the right time.”

And soon, the right pitch(es) did come, and just in the nick of time.

Pandemonium

In the sixth, Ebbs, on base for the third time today, walked to lead off the inning and Danielle Blackstun took over on the basepaths, advancing to second on Kara Daly’s sac bunt, before taking third on an Uptegrove ground out.

And then the unthinkable happened. With two outs and looking down the barrel of yet another loss, pinch hitting senior Mya Dodge, hitting sub-.200 this season in just 44 at-bats (she’s now hitting .205, excuse me), launched a two-run home run to center, her second of the season, to make it 3-2 Tigers.

“I didn’t even know what was going on,” Mya said after the game. “I knew I made good contact, but that was kind of where I was aiming. As soon as it came off the bat, I just kind of felt like, either way – whether it went out or whether it didn’t – I knew it was gonna be a hit.”

Eight pitches later, freshman Abbie Wilhelm, getting just her second career start on Thursday, followed with a solo jack of her own above the right-center wall to make it 4-2 for her first collegiate hit.

When asked about it afterwards, Abbie said, “That was a jittery one. I guess it was my first at-bat, I was really feeling it, just kind of getting the feel of what I felt like to be in the box again, especially against Georgia and one of their best pitchers. The confidence just grew as it came on.”

Pandemonium ensued. The listless Mizzou Softball Stadium crowd broke out into frenzied cheers. THIS was the team they’d been waiting for. The one who beat Duke, Oklahoma and Texas A&M.

Taylor Pannell entered in the top of the seventh to close it out for the Tigers, her first true save opportunity in quite a while it feels like, and was lights out, working a quick 1-2-3 on a groundout sandwiched in between two strikeouts.

“I thought that Taylor Pannell showed unbelievable composure coming out there. Great crowd energy, you know, very, very enthusiastic. We haven’t been in a lot of those save opportunities, and it looked like she looked last year with just the great command and control and confidence that she has in her ability.”

(Michael Baniewicz, Rock M)

“It’s a great start to an emotional senior weekend,” Anderson said in her postgame opening statement. “And I think it’s really special that Mya Dodge, one of our seniors, hit the go-ahead home run. I mean, it’s a testament to how hard they continue to work. Kids that are on the bench are prepared and it’s next man up. All the work that they’re putting in, they never quit.”

She continued. “And the same with Abbie Wilhelm. I mean, she’s had maybe one start. Not a lot of at-bats. I think she was 0-for-10 or 11, and then it just has been continuing to work, which is why she was in the starting lineup today, and she capitalized…. Just extremely proud of those two.”

(Michael Baniewicz, Rock M)

Closing Thoughts

What does this win mean for the Tigers moving forward? Nothing in terms of the postseason, as they’d still need to win six straight to end the season at .500. But what does it mean for their confidence to finish out the season strong in front of their home crowd? I’m sure it means the world.

“It’s really just competition,” Anderson said. “It’s execution. It’s game is on the line all the time. There isn’t anything that anybody can do at this point in the season that we’re not prepared for, so we don’t have to change anything. We don’t have to do anything different. It’s just a matter of— we have to be able to execute when the game is called upon us.”

Mizzou will get a chance to take its first SEC series of the season on Friday at 5pm. You can watch the game on SEC+.