The No. 8-ranked Missouri Tigers softball team welcomed in the No. 18-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers for Game 2 of a Sunday doubleheader. The crowd was wild, and the Tigers had one of their best pitchers on the bump in Laurin Krings. 

Krings started off the top of the first really well, but it all went downhill with two outs. She was able to get two outs rather quickly, but Ashley Morgan reached base on an error by Krings. Then, Zaida Puni reached first on an error made by first baseman Riley Frizell. That second error scored a run for the Lady Vols to get them out to a 1-0 lead. Tennessee pitcher Bailey McCachren was able to get a 1-2-3 inning to close out the first. 

Walking the first Tennessee batter for Krings to start the second did not go well. Although she was able to get Ivy Davis to pop out to Kara Daly, the next batter – Madison Webber – deposited a ball into left field for a two-run homer, Webber’s seventh homer of the season. After the homer, Krings settled down and got out of the half-inning. 

In the top of the third inning, Zaida Puni crushed a ball to right, and it almost left the Mizzou Softball Stadium complex. The hit marked Puni’s ninth homer of the season, giving the Lady Vols the 4-0 lead. Everything seemed to be going Tennessee’s way, and that continued into the top of the fourth, when Ivy Davis hit a solo shot into left field for her seventh homer of the season. 

The Tigers wouldn’t go down quietly. With back-to-back singles from Kim Wert and Kayla Daly, the opportunity was knocking for Alex Honnold. She doubled up the middle, scoring pinch-runner Hannah McGivern to cut Tennessee’s lead to 5-1. Kendyll Bailey singled up the middle, as well. With that single, McCachren was chased out of the game. Then in stepped the veteran grad Hatti Moore, and although she hasn’t gotten off to the hot start she would have liked, she singled and scored Daly. The Tigers scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth and made it a game. 

Kim Wert got a sac fly in the bottom of the fifth. That was all the scoring for the Tigers and they fell to the lady volunteers 5-4 despite having runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Shortstop Amanda Ayala made a great catch ranging all the way to left field to end the ballgame. The Lady Volunteers came into Missouri Softball Stadium and took all the smiles off of the Columbia hopefuls.