By Caleb Lewis
It was windy and chocolatey game two between Texas A&M and Missouri softball on Friday in a 4-3 win. On Willy Wonka night at Mizzou Softball Stadium, Mizzou had all sorts of candy themed giveaways for the fans that showed up to the game. It was safe to say that everyone’s inner child was out for the night, that was the case for Mizzou.
In the 1^st inning, Texas A&M was one out away from getting out of the inning scoreless when an infield popup to first base was lost in the setting sun and dropped. Missouri’s Jazmyn Rollin scored from second on the dropped ball. The next batter, Kara Decker, hit a two-RBI single to put the Tigers up 3-0 in the first inning. The second was another rough one for the Aggies as they would surrender another five runs in the bottom of the second inning. After two innings, Mizzou lead 8-0. A&M’s bats were kept quite and were not able to score any runs, and after the top of the fifth inning the game was called due to the runs rule.
It was a rough night for Texas A&M, but the opposite was true for Mizzou. They scored early and could relax enough to the point after head coach Larissa Anderson dodged a foul ball coming at her along the third base line. Both coach and Missouri’s players were able to laugh it off.
“I think the biggest thing is that we drew key walks early on in the game,” Anderson said postgame.
With the win, Mizzou got their 9^th SEC win of the year. Mizzou on the outside of the Top-25 polls,, but after Friday’s win, Mizzou has a three-game winning streak with nine games left in the regular season.
“We’re peaking at the right time,” Anderson said. “Pitching has to continue doing what they’ve been doing, and it’s going to come down to pitching and defense. We know that we can score runs, and our defense is making great plays to keep us in the play games.”
Edited by Garrett Jones | [email protected]