Mizzou softball battles through regional elimination bracket, beats Washington

Despite an early upset in this weekend’s regional, Mizzou softball has battled back through the elimination bracket to the regional final in Columbia.

Head coach Larissa Anderson’s squad managed to stay alive after senior pitcher Laurin Krings and the Tigers survived its first elimination game against Indiana on Saturday, and the short turnaround for first pitch about an hour following its conclusion didn’t cause for any sluggish play in the 4-1 win over the Washington Huskies on Saturday night.

Krings made another start in the circle for the Tigers, and her Saturday efforts played a large role in the Tigers bouncing back off the Omaha loss from Friday. Between both games on Saturday, Krings pitched 11 innings, allowing two runs across two games.

Against the Huskies, she went 4.2 innings with one run on six hits with four punchouts.

Freshman Abby Hay started the scoring on Saturday night with a solo shot to center off Washington sophomore Ruby Meylan. Meylan finished her day after going 2.1 innings, giving up two earned runs on three hits.

Meylan gave up her second home run of the night to senior Missouri Alex Honnold and walked senior Maddie Gallagher on the following plate appearance in the third, with freshman Sidne Peters entering for relief.

Peters lasted another two innings for the Huskies before the Tigers got to her for another two runs in the fifth.

The Tigers strung together four consecutive singles to jump out to the 4-1 lead, and freshman Marissa McCann put together a six-out save to keep the Tigers’ season alive.

With the win, the Tigers now face a rematch against the Omaha Mavericks for the regional final. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. on Sunday.